What thanksgiving reveals about you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Colossians 3:15

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

If worry is the opposite of faith, then thanksgiving is the expression of faith—in fact, the highest expression. God has blessed you, but you may not think so if you’re measuring blessings by the barometer of health, wealth, and happiness.

You say, “I don’t think I have as much to thank God for as some other people.” Well, the apostle Paul was in a filthy Philippian jail awaiting a possible death sentence  when he wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Unthankful people are never happy people. They’re filled with bitterness, fear, negativism, selfishness and self-pity.

My friend, let me tell you what blessings we have. “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits…” (Psalm 68:19). God has loaded your wagon. How often? Every day! “It is of the LORD’S mercies we’re not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning…” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Every day you wake up to blessings.

ACTION POINT:

Thank Him for spiritual blessings. Thank Him for the simple blessings of simple things like clean water, food, and shelter. We are so blessed. Refuse to worry. Instead, carry everything to God in prayer. Rejoice in the presence of the Lord. Rely upon the power of the Lord. Reflect on the provision of the Lord. Rest in the peace of the Lord. Do everything with thanksgiving.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

When trials storm the beaches of your life

BIBLE MEDITATION:

As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him. 2 Samuel 22:31

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When bewilderment enshrouds you and despair looms at your door, when trials storm the beaches of your life, you may want to ask God, “Why? Why? Why?”

As a pastor, I've gone to so many funerals, so many hospitals, so many children's wards. I've had strong dads come up to me, their eyes brimming with tears, chin quivering. They take me by the lapel and say, “Pastor, why is this happening to my child? Why? Why?”

Friend, you may never understand why things are happening the way they are in your life, but that’s not your job. You see, it is not necessary for you to know why. That is God’s question. Your response is all that matters. When we can’t feel His hand, we must trust His heart. Our job is to simply trust and obey.

We want to know why? Where is God? Learn this about life. Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived. That is what the book of Job is telling us. We do not live by explanations, we live by promises. And God never did explain anything to Job. Sometimes it is God's plan that we don't understand. Because when we don't understand and trust Him, that my friend is a greater, greater faith than understanding and trusting him.

ACTION POINT:

Is something happening for which you have no explanation? Yet you long for answers. Ask God to give you peace and grace to trust Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Key to Spiritual Maturity

Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

Now, this is amazing. Don’t miss it. It could save you years of wasted living.

What this verse is saying is that if you want to become mature and understand and appreciate the more solid teachings of the word, then the rich, nutritional, precious milk of God’s gospel promises must transform your moral senses — your spiritual mind — so that you can discern between good and evil.

Or, let me put it another way. Getting ready to feast on all God’s word is not first an intellectual challenge; it is first a moral challenge. If you want to eat the solid food of the word, you must exercise your spiritual senses so as to develop a mind that discerns between good and evil. This is a moral challenge, not just intellectual.

The startling truth is that, if you stumble over understanding Melchizedek in Genesis and Hebrews, it may be because you watch questionable TV programs. If you stumble over the doctrine of election, it may be because you still use some shady business practices. If you stumble over the God-centered work of Christ on the cross, it may be because you love money and spend too much and give too little.

The pathway to maturity and to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but becoming an obedient person. What you do with alcohol and sex and money and leisure and food and computers, and the way you treat other people, has more to do with your capacity for solid food than where you go to school or what books you read.

This is so important because in our highly technological society we are prone to think that education — especially intellectual education — is the key to maturity. There are many Ph.D.’s who choke in their spiritual immaturity on the things of God. And there are many less-educated saints who are deeply mature and can feed with pleasure and profit on the deepest things of God’s word.

John Piper

The Gravity of Gratitude

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful . . . (2 Timothy 3:1–2)

Notice how ingratitude goes with pride, abuse, and insubordination.

In another place Paul says, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking . . . but instead let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). So, it seems that gratitude, thankfulness, is the opposite of ugliness and violence.

The reason this is so is that the feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling, not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is glad-hearted, not angry or bitter. Bitter thankfulness is a contradiction in terms.

The key to unlocking a heart of thankfulness and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and violence is a strong belief in God, the Creator and Sustainer and Provider and Hope-giver. If we do not believe we are deeply indebted to God for all we have and hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude has gone dry.

So, I conclude that the rise of violence and sacrilege and ugliness and insubordination in the last times is a God-issue. The basic issue is a failure to feel gratitude at the upper levels of our dependence.

When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure.

Pray for a great awakening of humble gratitude.

John Piper 

Weed the garden of your mind

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

In the morning when you have a quiet time, do you know what’s really happening? You’re weeding a garden—the garden of your mind—so the good seed of the Word of God can multiply.

Time in the Word of God is vital to your growth as a child of God. If you sow the good seed of the Word in your life, you’ll reap accordingly.

God has set in place some immutable laws: the law of gravity, for example. What goes up must come down. The law of the harvest is another. What you sow, you will reap.

Have you ever planted a garden? You stood back and thought, “What a beautiful garden we’ve planted.” Then you went on vacation, came back, and saw weeds taking over. You see, you can’t just plant a garden, then forget it. After planting, it must be cultivated.

We live in a world cursed by sin. Thorns and weeds always try to choke out the good harvest. Pull out the worldly weeds and cultivate your mind with God’s Word. You can’t bypass this step and still expect a harvest.

And when you go out to win souls, water the crop with your tears. The heart of the Lord Jesus Christ broke over the people He longed to embrace and love unto Himself (see John 17). Learn this same compassion for the garden God has given you to harvest for His kingdom.

ACTION POINT:

Ask God to put you into His fields of service today. Ask Him to make you bold, yet compassionate and wise to share His Good News.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Five Reasons Death Is Gain

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

How is it “gain” to die?

1) Our spirits will be made perfect (Hebrews 12:22–23).

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

There will be no more sin in us. We will be done with the inner war and the heartrending disappointments of offending the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us.

2) We will be relieved of the pain of this world (Luke 16:24–25).

The joy of the resurrection will not yet be ours, but the joy of freedom from pain will be. Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man to show the great reversal that is coming at death.

“[The rich man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.’”

3) We will be given profound rest in our souls (Revelation 6:9–11).

There will be a serenity beneath the eye and care of God that surpasses anything we have known here on the softest summer evening by the most peaceful lake at our most happy moments.

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer.

4) We will experience a deep at-homeness (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

The whole human race is homesick for God, without knowing it. When we go home to Christ, there will be a contentment beyond any sense of security and peace we have ever known.

5) We will be with Christ (Philippians 1:21–23).

Christ is a more wonderful person than anyone on earth. He is wiser, stronger, and kinder than anyone you enjoy spending time with. He is endlessly interesting. He knows exactly what to do and what to say at every moment to make his guests as glad as they can possibly be. He overflows in love and with infinite insight into how to use that love to make his loved ones feel loved. Therefore Paul said,

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

John Piper

Overwhelmed by loneliness?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The late Dr. Paul Tournier, great Christian psychiatrist from Switzerland, wrote that loneliness is the most devastating malady of this age. What is loneliness? Many confuse it with being alone. But you can be in a crowd, yet be lonely.

Loneliness doesn’t have to overwhelm you. After all is said and done, truly your only solace from loneliness is found in Jesus. Why? John 1:10-11 tells us that the world neither received Jesus nor knew Him. He understands what we feel.

When I’m discouraged, His presence sees me through. When I’m lonely, His presence cheers me up. You know, I go for a drive with Jesus. I take a walk with Jesus. I read a book with Jesus. Do you know what I’m talking about? “But I need somebody real,” you say. Jesus is real. He is closer to you than anyone else can be. He is as real to me as my closest friend. And He has time for me as though there were no one else.

When I’m worried, His presence calms me. David wrote, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8). God is at my right hand. That’s what David meant when he said, “I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).

We will never be separated from Him! “…for He hath said, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee’” (Hebrews 13:5b).

ACTION POINT:

Are you lonely? Chances are someone you know is, too. Why don’t you give someone a call right now and invite them to do something.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers