THURSDAY, MAY 9
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:1;11

1 Thessalonians 5:9 states, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,…” Context determines meaning. The context draws a distinction between those who live of the day and those who live of the night. Just because we are appointed to salvation does not mean we achieve it. If we choose darkness, a lifestyle of worldliness, then we get the blackness of night forever! Wrath is revealed against sin. Jude warns us of the same eternal sentence in verses 3-7, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.” When leaders take a nation down a course that guarantees God’s wrath, the church should switch immediately from “praying for” to “praying against.” Pray the wrath off the nation and onto the Godless leaders, as an issue of justice. If the Supreme Court rules for homosexual marriage, then the church prays wrath on each justice who voted for it until they are like Herod, “eaten by worms.” Wrath should help others repent. The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was a message for every generation!