Song for today: Go Light Your World/Artist: Chris Rice.
I've been praying on and off over the last couple of years that God would help me to love others and see others as He does. I use Today in the Word by Moody Bible Institute (www.todayintheword.org) as my daily devotion time. This month is looking at 1 and 2 Thessalonians. On Monday's reading, 1 Th. 2:17-20 Paul says "But, brothers, when we were torn away form you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you." (2:17 NIV) I followed up that parenthetical "in person, not in thought" to see what that was about. It turns out that the thought part is the Greek word kardia . . . sounds like cardiac doesn't it? That's because it means heart and not the literal organ. According to the Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek it refers to "the areas of the inner self, including: the volition, the mind, the desires, etc., though the facility of the intellect may be slightly more emphasized"*
If my heart is not with those that God has given me and placed me in the midst of then I am off-track. Even more importantly, if I pretend my heart is with those in the outer parts of my circle of influence and neglect my closest family then I am a hypocrite. I want to have the same concern for those in my sphere of influence that Paul had (see 2 Cor. 11:23-29).
*James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), DBLG 2840, #1.
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