Triple Threat

When I think of trios, the 3 Amigos certainly come to mind.
As do the 3 Muskateers.
In It Works we have the Triple Threat - greens, fat Fighters, and thermofit.
And then, of course, there is the most famous triad of all - the Trinity with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the Christian world, another trio should sound familiar too - faith, hope, and love.
You know the "3 that remain."
We see them mentioned all throughout Paul's letters.
As I opened to 1 Thessalonians 1 this morning, I say the triad in the first few verses.

We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly.  As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yep, there they are again!
The believers in Thessalonica were known for these 3 qualities.
These 3 traits defined them.

That's how I want to be.
How I want to be known, remembered, spoken of both now and long after I am gone.

Here's the deal - these 3 characteristics of a Christian are POWERFUL.
Faith, hope, and love are a Triple Threat as we fight our enemy every single day.
Satan KNOWS that.
And so he does his absolute best to keep us from developing these traits, to distract us, to occupy us, to discourage us, and eventually defeat us.
BUT, it does NOT have to be that way.

In fact, we have already won the war.
It's those day in and day out battles that we struggle with.

At Winter Jam this past weekend, something one of the artists said really stuck out to me.
"We don't fight FOR victory.  We fight FROM victory."

Talk about perspective.  Mindset is everything.
We MUST remember that we ARE victorious, overcomers because of Christ.
We can confidently declare our victory and stand firm in our position as winners.

Peter must have known we would need reminding.
He writes and urges us to keep in mind that God has given us everything we need to live for Him.  He goes on to encourage us to never stop growing, but rather "supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self- control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone."

Did you see how faith, hope, and love are woven throughout there?!

Peter promises us, "the more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The better equipped we will be to defeat Satan on a daily basis, putting him back in his place time and time again.

We have access to this Trile Threat at ALL times.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of us!!!
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and well in you and me.
Right now.
Today.

Let's take advantage of that and live in such a way that like the believers in Thessalonica, we are known for our "faithful work, loving deeds, and enduring hope."

As we do, God will use each of us - you and me - to CRUSH SATAN!!!
The Triple Threat is no match for him!!!