Deeper Life #27

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

—1 Thessalonians 5:14

IF THERE IS ONE THING that God has taught me in the past six years, it is that He can minister to a mind diseased. He can breathe into that mind His cleanness, His balm, His restoration. And in this Scripture verse, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul admonishes us to “comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

Some servants of God find it very easy to obey the first command in that verse, but they forget the other two. It is far easier to warn the “unruly” than it is to comfort “the feebleminded.”

I am apt to forget the long way it took God to bring me to this point in the divine life, and I lose patience with other folks if they do not see at once what I now see. But God’s Word exhorts me to be patient with all people. It brings to mind the question, How long did it take God to put you where you are now?

Prayer Thought: O Lord, make me mindful of my own weakness when I am prone to lose patience with the weakness of another.

SUGGESTED READING: 1 Thessalonians 5:12–15