Receiving With Thanksgiving!

1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Thank God in everything )no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you (who are) in Christ Jesus (the Revealer and Mediator of that will). Amplified Bible

I don’t know about you,  but sometimes this is so hard to do.  In fact in our own strength it is impossible to do.  I am convinced that in Christ,  we do now have a choice to “praise God in all things.”  Our heavenly Father would never ask us to do anything that He had not already provided the source to accomplish it through the power of the Holy Spirit. So the real question becomes, will we choose by an act of our will,  to “thank God” in all things?  When I realized that I do not have to understand or have all the answers to what is going on in my life, I am to surrender to my loving heavenly Father and trust Him, then I could with tears running down my face or sometimes my heart broken, “thank Him.”

Max Lucado in one of his devotional books tells this story about when he was a little boy. ” As a child I loved to be pushed in the swing.  Dad and I would go to the park.  Oh,  how I loved to go high.  Push me higher, I would yell.

One 4th of July, my family was having a family reunion at the park.  I was swinging as usual.  I asked my Dad if he would push the swing, however, he said that he was busy and had my cousin push me.  No!  I didn’t like that one bit.  I really wasn’t sure I could trust my cousin.  I knew I could trust my Dad.  That reminds us of the event in Matthew 8 where great fear had gripped the disciples in a storm, yet Jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat.  How?  Jesus knew His Father was in control.

You can “thank God in all things” when you know that He is pushing the swing of your life.”

Thank you Max Lucado for these wonderful life illustrations.

Joy

Phyllis