Proverbs 4:23 “Keep
your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues
of life.”
I just finished up a long
24-day day adventure, visiting family involving multiple trips, interactions
and coordinated efforts. And though it was a blessing and loving re-connection,
it felt good to come home and settle in to the comfortable old routine at our
humble abode. While gone, I missed a couple Sunday sermons at my home church
here in Anaheim, California, so I went to the computer to pull up the achieved
video message to catch up on what I missed. During Thanksgiving week, while I
was up at Bass Lake helping my father, Pastor Obie preached on the virtue of
“Thankfulness” and here is what he had to say to us.
We all need to be diligent
(hard-working and industrious) with our lives. God has given each of us the
ability to develop disciplines within our inner life, so that it will
positively affect our outer life. Anyone who performs a sport must be diligent
in training (learning and practicing the fundamentals and fine points) in preparation
of the game, match or event in order to compete and win. Similarly, God wants
you and I to win in the area of “thankfulness” in our life. Pastor Obie gave us
three biblical methods of thankfulness guaranteed, if practiced, will change
our life, our well-being and our relationships.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
God’s will for our lives for
us to be happy, have an open relationship with Him, and for us to be thankful
in everything. This begins with giving thanks to God. Our praying is a
conversation with our heavenly Father, so speak with Him constantly. In your
conversation, don’t pray like you are always wanting something from the Lord
(i.e. “I need this” and “I want that”). We need to change up the way that we
speak to God, making our list of things that we are thankful for longer than
the list of our needs. Thanks turns into praise of God. The Greek word for
“thanks” in this passage is Eucharisteō”, meaning to express gratitude, and is
where we get the word “Eucharist” (the Lord’s Supper) from, because when we
take part and partake of Holy Communion, we do so in thankfulness from the
heart of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for our salvation; thankfulness for God’s
good grace received. The One who deserves all thanks and praise is God, Jehovah
Jireh, the source of our provision. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation
or shadow of turning.” Let us not forget the spring of all goodness and
ability in our life.
We must remember to
recognize the gift-giver and not focus on the gift. If we love the gift more
than we love the Giver of the gift, than the gift turns into an idol. We should
never be blinded by the blessings so that we lose sight of the Blessor. Give
thanks to God.
Colossians 3:17 instructs
us, “whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Psalm 136:1 proclaims, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
Finish this sentence: Thank you God for (1) __________
(2) _________ (3) _________ - filling in the blanks with the top 3 things that
you were thankful for this last week.
With this exercise, let's continue Pastor Obie's message on "Thankfulness" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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