May God Himself...

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

This is a great verse to pray in many situations. First lets define sanctify. This simply means to be set apart as important and valuable. These verses come at the end of a letter that Paul wrote and offers a blessing to those people.

I love the beginning of this because it tells that this is not about a person doing something or offering the blessing, instead it is “God himself”! Second, our lives are often confusing and stressful and this blessing is coming from God who knows and offers to give us perfect peace. At the same time God has set us apart as valuable and not that just one piece of us is valuable but all of us (through and through). Too often we think that we have value because of one good talent – say playing basketball or drawing – but God values all aspects of us because He created us.

The middle part of this blessing asks is a continuation of asking God to do something in us. It’s not that we are perfect but that God himself is perfect and can work in us to keep us on the right track.
The last part is my favorite because we know that people and situations in this world fail us. We all have made mistakes and those mistakes hurt other people. That’s why everyone has some trust issues. This is a difficult, stressful, and disappointing world that we live in. BUT God is faithful all the time, everywhere, and in every situation.

So what is the “it” that God will faithfully do?
1. He has set us apart as valuable since He created us.
2. He offers peace.
3. He will help us stay on the right track (work toward being blameless).

Prayer: “Lord thank you that you are always faithful. Thank you for creating me and valuing me. Thank you for giving me peace in a stressful world. Help me to stay on the right track. Amen”