Faith, Hope and Love, Thessalonians 1

1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians' Faith
2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Short chapter. I really do get encouragement from how Paul always tells the reader that he mentions them in his prayers. Prayer is powerful and we all know that we benefit from it when someone prays for us. Verse 5 says that "you know how we lived among you for your sake." I think this is the verse that we could apply to our lives. If we really want to impact others for Christ's sake we need to be living a life worth copying. It is not a do as I say, but do as I do way of life that Paul is talking about.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to say, "your faith in God has become known EVERYWHERE!"