BEING APPRECIATED BY OTHERS

I Thess. 1:2-3 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we talk to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and your continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wouldn’t you like to have a pastor like Paul, one who you knew appreciated you and was constantly praying over you? I can only imagine what the church would be like to have spiritual leaders like that, people who genuinely cared about the souls of the church.

Paul did not focus on the negative things within the church. Instead he thought about their faithful work, their loving deeds, and their focus on the Lord’s coming. It is so easy to magnify the flaws of others in our minds and prayers. It is easy to point out flaws in others to the Lord and ask Him to fix them. But, Paul wasn’t like that. He chose to focus on the positives instead of the negatives. It would be wonderful if a church was so good that there would not be room for the negatives to crop up, but unfortunately that generally is not the case.

What do we think about when we pray for one another? Think about it for a moment. Do you thank the Lord for what is going on right with a person and pray that it continues? Or, do you focus on the negatives and ask the Lord to change them? One of the reasons why we are prone to dwell on the negatives is that in our minds it makes us look better than they do. And when we see ourselves in a positive light, we are not prone to see our own flaws and failures and repent.

Let us strive to change our ways. Look at others in a positive light. Thank the Lord for the good that you see in others and it will have a profound effect on how you react to them. You cannot truly love someone who you look down on. You are far more prone to care about those whom you love. The Kingdom of God is built on the positives and not the negatives. It is God's will for us to love one another and work together for His glory.