16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 NLT

Advent is the period of time reminding us that we wait for the Messiah to bring salvation. But what do we do in the waiting time? Paul in 1 Thessalonians gives us three things that we can busy ourselves in our time of patience. Be joyful. Pray. Be thankful. Whenever we do any of these three things we can be assured that we are in God’s will. Let me say that again. Whenever we rejoice, pray and give thanks we are in God’s will. All too often we overcomplicate our faith journey. Being in God’s will is straightforward business given to us in the Scriptures plainly like above. There are plenty of ways we know we can be in God’s will such as forgiving each other and serving one another to name just two. However, we often busy ourselves with asking the question of “what am I to do?” or continually being worried about being in God’s will. To be honest I often wonder if that is just a smokescreen for our unwillingness to do the thing(s) we know that are clearly God’s will.

So, let’s take this new week to uncomplicate our faith. Let’s do what is right in front of us that we know is part of God’s will. May this week be filled with rejoicing, praying and thankfulness. My promise is that if you will do these three things this week, you will be right smack-dab in the middle of God’s will. And who knows what might happen as a result of that…