May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
Good deeds are not enough; we must maintain a heavenly perspective or even our acts of charity can become obligations that need to be maintained. The Thessalonians were under tremendous persecution and they needed to lift their eyes up to keep going forward. The same is true for us today–we need to take time to look to Jesus or we can lose our heavenly perspective on even the most noble of actions. ~ Dave Whitehead, Senior Pastor, GraceNYC.org
