SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/26/2019
10:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Consequence Toward God: Giving Thanks
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:20
Message of the verse: “20 Thank God the Father at all times for
everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let
us look at three possible attitudes about thanksgiving as we begin this
SD. The first attitude is that
thanksgiving is unnecessary. I remember
when my parents were living in a mobile home park in Florida and they had a
pretty close friend who certainly did not know the Lord. They were at his mobile home for supper and
mom wanted to pray before her meal. The
man told mom that she could pray, but as far as he was concerned it was him who
provided the food that they were about to eat.
He certainly did not realize that by God’s common grace that it was Him
who allowed this man to have food on his table.
The
second attitude about thanksgiving is that of the hypocrite, and this can be
seen in a parable that Jesus told about a Pharisee who was very
self-righteous: we read from Luke
8:11-12 “11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ’God, I thank
You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even
like this tax collector. 12 ’I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I
get.’” As we see the other man was a tax
collector and this man said the following to the Lord in his prayer: “13 "But
the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up
his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ’God, be merciful to
me, the sinner!’” Jesus said the
following about both of them: “14 "I tell you, this man went to his
house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.’” John MacArthur adds: “Like the rest of his life, the Pharisee’s
prayer of thanksgiving was hypocritical sham and pretense.”
The
third attitude about thanksgiving, and you knew that we had to get to this one,
is that of a truly thankful person. This
can be seen in something that happened in the life of Jesus when he healed ten
lepers. The only leper who came back to
Jesus and gave him thanks for healing him was a man who was truly thankful for
being healed, and this man was a Samaritan who desired to give glory to God for
his healing: “18 "Was no one found
who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?’”
John
MacArthur tells of a medieval legend showing that people desire to ask God for
something more than they like to give thanks for what the Lord gives to
them. Two angels were sent to earth to
bring back prayer requests and thanksgiving to the Lord. The one who collected the prayer requests
could hardly get all of them to heaven while the other angel collecting
thanksgiving held them in one hand.
I
have just began to teach through the Psalms in our Sunday school class and
there are many Psalms instructing us to give thanks to the Lord. The word “thanks” is found 49 times in the
book of Psalms from the NASB95 version.
The word thanksgiving is found 11 times.
This is a good book to help us better understand thanksgiving along with
a good reminder for us to give thanks.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I know in my heart that everything that I
have comes from the Lord, and yet I suppose that I do not give thanks to the
Lord for the many blessings that He gives me each day. I have air to breathe, food to eat, a house
to live in, and many other blessings that I do not give thanks to the Lord for
on a consistence way. To this I am
ashamed and am thankful for the reminder that Paul wrote in our verse today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Learning humility should teach me to give
thanks to the Lord and not be like my parents neighbor in Florida who was more
proud than humble.
Today’s quotation comes from Charles H.
Spurgeon who states “The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”
7/26/2019 11:05 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment