Wednesday Notes 9/19/12 "He will comfort and establish your hearts"

2 Thess. 2:16-17

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word."

Verse 16 seems to be the "set up" of sorts, where Paul is restarting  and reinforcing the position and relationships, with regards to we the believers, and the benefits, if you will, associated with it as a consequence of relationship and position.

Verse 17 (Remembering as to why Paul is writing the church at Thessalonica.)  Paul is telling them, instructing them to "comfort your hearts".

I.  They ere and some of us are going through trials tribulations etc and we are to comfort our hearts.

    A. Comfort = "encourage"

Next Paul tells them(us) to...

II.  Establish (our hearts) in

    A. establish = "strengthen"

    B.  establish in EVERY good WORK  (actions, whether BIG or small, work for His honor and glory)

     C.  establish in EVERY good word (Faith in SOUND DOCTRINE)
           1. Learn what God says about "it" 
           2. Test everything you hear and read
         
BUT...

All of this hinges/depends on your RELATIONSHIP with GOD.  God our Father, His son and our Lord Jesus Christ.

AND...

Just in case you didn't know or weren't sure Verse 16 tells us how, it clearly spells out Why God is doing ALL He had done

1.  Because He loves us
2.  He gave us GRACE
   In His GRACE is comfort, Encouragement, Peace, Hope, Mercy, and love.  This is not an all inclusive list, but a few of the awesome blessings that are IN HIM.

I pray that your hearts to night seek and find the COMFORT of God and that in Him you are ESTABLISHED for every good work and word.  In Jesus name, AMEN.