Morning Family ~ Today I want to zero in on one specific and profoundly important thing that God tells us we ought to be, and it is found in the last part of Colossians 3:15: “...be ye thankful.” Not being thankful causes us to miss life’s best; whereas to be properly thankful honors God, helps us to reach our highest potential, and enables us to be a blessing to others. Notice that this is a command from God, not a mere suggestion. A command is primarily an appeal to the will which means that being thankful is a matter of decision, not a matter of circumstances. Some of the most thankful people you’ll ever see have a pretty rough go of it, while some of the most ungrateful people have it rather well. It’s a matter of obeying God by making up your mind to be thankful and deciding to major on counting your blessings rather than your liabilities. The gospel song says “count your many blessings name them one-by-one” and we can pretty well do that if we want. The fact that we can gather for worship, friends, family, clean water, housing reasonably good health are all part of the many blessings that we enjoy. We should be thankful for all things in all things. We ought to be thankful to other people, and we most certainly ought to be thankful to God. Our thankfulness ought to take at least three directions. For one thing, we ought to be thankful for PAST BLESSINGS. Of course, some aspects of the past should be put behind us and forgotten. We ought not, dwell on past failures. Once we’ve confessed those failures, through Christ, we need to move on. Neither should we dwell on wrongs done to us in the past. Those should be forgiven. But we definitely should remember the blessings of the past, and thank God for them. Psalm 103:2 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” We should thank him also for mercifully bringing us through some of the difficult, trying times. We should thank God for people who have meant so much to us in the past including those who are no longer with us. “In spite of the loss we feel, we should be thankful that God gave us those loved ones for the years that we did have them.” This year my mother Margaret will have been gone from us 4 years in April and The Old Girl will have been gone 2 years next month. Margaret gave me life and the Old Girl raised me and taught me about life. I was so blessed to have those two wonderful women in my life and I frequently speak of them and thank God for them and what they have meant to me and contributed to my life. Remembering them (and others) enhances me spiritually, emotionally, and in every worthy way when I pause from time to time to thank God for the blessings of the past. We should also thank God for PRESENT BLESSINGS. Psalm 46:1 speaks of God as “a very present help in trouble” and of course He is our present help at other times, as well. Each of us could make a long list of present blessings for which we should thank the Lord for. Even in the midst of life’s storms when we’re hurting, we can thank God for such promises as Psalm 147:3:.“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. When life’s pressures seem unbearable, intolerable and insurmountable we can thank God for such promises as in 1 Corinthians 10:13:.“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” We can thank him for his promise in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “...my grace is sufficient for thee....“ We also should thank God for FUTURE BLESSINGS. We should thank him for His promises having to do with our tomorrows in this life. “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.” Psalm 27:5. One of My favorite phrases in the Bible is that which says, ‘…and it came to pass...’ It doesn’t say, ‘and it came to stay’ it says, ‘it came to pass’ Whatever tough times may come just hang in there with the assurance that eventually God will bring you through it. It will pass! We also should thank God for the blessings He has promised for the life beyond; blessings that will vastly overshadow any tough times we might have had while journeying through life down here. The greatest of all blessings is God’s gift to mankind, in what is probably the best known and best loved verse in all the Bible, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you’ve never done so, repent of your sins and commit yourself in faith to the Son of God and you too can then exclaim, as Paul did in 2 Corinthians 9:15: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” So, on this “I’m thankful” Monday, let us make up our minds that by the help of God we’re going to look on life’s positive side instead of being overly absorbed with burdens and concentrate on our blessings past, present and future. Start Counting! Blessings and PEACE to you all, “...be ye thankful…”
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 10:51:45 +0000
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