Listen

May the Lord cause you to increase and enrich your love for each other and for everyone in the same way as we also love you. May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his people. Amen.

1 Thessalonians: 3:12-13

Think

Today’s passage completes this chapter and portion of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. It is a blessing, abundant and rich in wishes for the community to grow in love and goodness.

Think about a time where you saw someone bless another person or thing. Did they place their hands on their shoulders, or put a cross on their forehead, or lift an item up to the sky?

Paul expresses his wish that this community would reflect the love they have received out into the rest of the world. He hopes that just as they have been blessed by a God of abundant love, so they will shine that love outward onto every person they meet and each moment they experience.

God’s love is a multiplier – to receive it is to share it with the world.

Paris Ball

Pray

Sit for a moment in quiet, reflecting on the blessings you’ve experienced in the last 24 hours.

Inhale:
God of abundant love

Exhale:
May your love be reflected in my life this day

(repeat three times)

 

Go

As we depart from this time of prayer and reflection
may we be attentive to the moments ahead

May we receive the world with
courage and compassion

May we treat ourselves with
loving kindness

May hope guide us,
for the Lord is coming!