By Kevin Shrum
Pastor, Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville
Focal Passage: I Thessalonians 3:4-13
The enemy of our soul — Satan — uses many tools to attack the believer, i.e., lies, temptations and, maybe above all, discouragement. In fact, though Satan has limited knowledge, he does know that to discourage God’s people is to deter God’s work. Satan first isolates us from other believers, attacks the gospel itself, causing doubt and fear that leads to discouragement. And once discouraged, God’s people become spiritually paralyzed. How can we overcome Satan’s “ministry of discouragement?”
DISTRESSED (I Thessalonians 3:4-5). Paul longed to see his fellow believers in Thessalonica (I Thessalonians 2:17-20). But for many reasons his visit was delayed. Paul rightly assigned blame for this delay on Satan. This put Paul in great distress. He knew that his fellow believers would face suffering for their commitment to Jesus Christ and His gospel. He also knew that Satan might tempt them to abandon the gospel (I Thessalonians 3:5). Isolated from each other, both Paul and the Thessalonians were in great spiritual danger and distress. [Read more…]


