KEEP ON KEEPING ON

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
- William James

SCRIPTURE
1 Thess. 4:1-8 [Message] One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. 2 You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. 3 God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. 4 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, 5 not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. 6 Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. 7 God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside. 8 If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
1 Thess. 4:1-8 [ESV] Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

OBSERVATION
Do what you are doing - just do it better - It's a cheer
For this is God's will, your sanctification- It's a challenge!
Control your own body - It's a command!

APPLICATION
sanctification - To do God’s will involves, among other things, being sanctified. This peculiarly Christian word refers to the ongoing process of becoming increasingly free from sin and filled with love. To be sanctified means to belong to God and to show the same character as God. - [New Bible Commentary]

PRAYER
Father,
In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, enable me to become increasingly free from sin and filled with love.