When I was a little girl, I felt a little bit of fear when I thought about the return of Jesus. I believed in Jesus at a young age, but I had a lot of questions about the return of Jesus, and fear crept in as I thought about it. As I have grown in my faith and studied Scripture more deeply, I no longer feel fear. I have learned that anyone who has placed their faith in Jesus can look to Jesus’ coming with anticipation instead of fear. One of the reasons we do not have to fear is that Christ’s followers have been chosen by God to spend eternal life with Him, and that makes all of the difference.
Paul reminds the church of Thessalonica that God chose them to be His followers. He writes in these verses, “always be thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation” (verse 13). He continues teaching that this salvation makes them holy or made right with God. He then said, “He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 14). Not only were the people from the church of Thessalonica chosen but they were also called. The result was that they could “share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Because they were chosen and called, Paul wanted them to be confident that they would be made right with Jesus and spend eternal life with Him. Because of this, there would be no reason for them to be fearful or worried about Jesus’ return.
In the same way, the same is true if we have placed our faith in Christ. God has called us to salvation through Jesus, and if we commit our lives to Him, we have eternal life with Him. We have been made right with Him. We can be confident in Jesus’ return and do not have to live in fear. We only have beautiful things awaiting us when Christ comes back for us, and we experience eternal life with Him.
Find time today to write out the verses in the Going Deeper section in your journal or notebook. As you write these verses, spend time reflecting on the promises that can be found in them. Then, pick one of the verses that stood out to you to memorize. Friends, you are chosen by God to have a relationship with God. Find hope in Him today.
"Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.
14 And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. 15 For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too. They fail to please God and work against all humanity 16 as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.
17 Dear brothers and sisters, after we were separated from you for a little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried very hard to come back because of our intense longing to see you again."
