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Three Basic Exhortations

Pursuing a deeper devotion to God can be a frustrating exercise in that we can get lost in the details. Most of us have so many areas in which we need to grow and there are so many practices that we need engage in for our spiritual good, the whole project can seem daunting. We can lose sight of the forest while tending to the individual trees.

When we've lost our way, however, growing in godliness is like many other endeavors: we need to get back to the basics. And when it comes to the basics of spiritual growth, there is no more fundamental text than 1 Thess.
5:16-18. Here Paul lays down three exhortations of such primary importance that one commentator has called them "the standing orders of the Christian church."

Rejoice always. Most Christians understand that there is a difference between happiness and joy, and that we can experience joy even in the midst of pain. Speaking of our hope, Peter wrote, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials" (1 Pt. 1:6). But when we're hurting, it's hard to remember what we know about the joy of the Christian. So we need to train our minds to return to the joy that is always ours in Christ. In fact, we need to rejoice so regularly that joy is never very far away from our conscious thoughts. There is a strength and peace that come from joy that can't come from any other source, and there is nothing we can do that is any more conducive to spiritual growth than joy.

Pray without ceasing. To pray "without ceasing" certainly doesn't mean that we never do anything but pray. It means that we pray very often, living a life that is characterized by frequent prayer rather than one in which prayer is a rarity. There is even a sense in which we can learn to live in a prayerful attitude even when we're not praying per se. Like joy, prayer can be something that continually hovers on the edges of our thoughts. As somebody said, prayer can be the atmosphere in which we live.

But praying without ceasing can also mean that we pray with perseverance and don't give up. In Luke 18:1, we are told of Jesus, "Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart." Unceasing prayer is the kind that keeps praying when others would quit, and that's the kind that will help us learn a deeper devotion to God.

Give thanks in everything. There are many things that are evil, and although we might give thanks for the outcome of these things, they are not things in themselves that we would give thanks for. To give thanks "in everything" is, as the English Standard Version renders it, to give thanks "in all circumstances." Daniel is an example here. On the day it became illegal to pray, we are told that he "went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days" (Dan. 6:10). Many of us might have prayed on such a day, perhaps, but would we have given thanks? Daniel did, and like him, we need to learn the habit of giving thanks even on dark and difficult days.

Why are these three exhortations so powerful and valuable? I believe it is because they are "perspective adjusters," that is, when we do them, we find our sense of proportion, priority, and relative importance returning. When, even in the midst of hardship, we discipline ourselves to rejoice, we have our sights lifted above our immediate difficulties to the coming triumph of God over every difficulty. When, although we don't feel like it, we engage in prayer, we can't help but have our sense of priorities refreshed. And when, despite hindrances and heartaches, we give thanks for what is still right and good in our Father's world, we are reminded that problems are never the whole story at any given moment. Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks are like having a very dirty pair of eyeglasses cleaned: afterwards, we can see so clearly that we're amazed to see again the things that we had lost sight of.

So my brothers and sisters, let us rejoice always. Let us pray without ceasing. And let us give thanks in the midst of every circumstance. These are the ABCs of spiritual growth. Returning to them regularly can keep us from getting lost in the details of daily living.

Gary Henry
WordPoints.com