SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/19/2014 9:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Why We Give
Thanks, and Why we Don’t
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1Thess. 4:18
Message of the
verses: 18 in everything give
thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I actually thought that we were done looking at this
verse, but after listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this verse I have
decided to come back and add some more things to what we talked about in our
last SD.
Let me begin with some reasons to give thanks and why we
are to give thanks. I have in the past
gone back to the beginning, that is the book of Genesis and looked at the
creation of planet earth as described there and how the Lord created all the things
on planet earth before he created man, for He created the things He did in
order for man to live on a beautiful planet so that man would be thankful for
His creation and worship the Lord for all He did. However there was a fly in the ointment as
Satan deceived Eve and her and Adam fell into sin, the first sin by humans and
plunged the entire universe into sin making it difficult to be able to give
thanks to the Lord because they had died spiritually and all who followed them
would be born spiritually dead. Right
after the fall of man God promises that One would come to defeat the works of
the devil as described in Genesis 3:15.
God was speaking of Jesus Christ who was born of the virgin Mary because
the sin nature passed through the male, thus making a virgin birth the way
Jesus would be born without having a sin nature. Jesus came for the purpose to save those who
would come to know Him as Savior and Lord giving all who accepted His payment
of the penalty of sin a new nature and also the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
building a bridge back to His Father.
These are all things that we should be giving thanks for, for we could
have done none of this on our own. So
with our new nature and with the Holy Spirit living in us and with the Word of
God to read and with the local church to attend listening to sermons from godly
Pastors to help us grow, why then is it so hard to give thanks in everything? The
answer is the old nature that we still have and also temptations from the devil
and the pull of the world’s system are three reasons that make it hard.
We are now going to look at several reasons why believers
can become unthankful, for this is not the way that they should be, but this
can happen to believers. Now unbelievers
are not thankful for they mostly believe that they can do things on their own, not
realizing that all people who live on the earth share in “common grace” that
are given to them by God, things like food to eat, air to breathe, rain that
falls on the earth to produce crops and other things too. However our discussion will be on the unthankfulness
of believers.
MacArthur says in his sermon that the first reason that
believers become unthankful is doubt, and what he is talking about is doubt
about God, about His character. Doubt
about His love for us, or doubt about His sovereign control of all things, or
perhaps doubt about His wisdom. What we
are talking about is doubting His attributes.
Number two is selfishness as this poisons the springs of
gratitude. A selfish person does not
care that God is in control of His life, he just wants what he wants and wants
it now, not believing that God can do things which are the best for you, not
believing what Romans 8:28 has to say.
Thirdly hindrance to being thankful is worldliness which
is the love of the world system. John
writes the following “15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The
world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God
lives forever.” The thing to remember
here is that the world is passing away, but all believers will live forever
with the Lord, so the things on earth are not as important when we think of it
that way.
The forth hindrance to being unthankful is a critical
spirit: “A critical spirit, a person who
is bitter, a person who is negative, who has a sour life attitude.”
Number
five is impatience: “Some people don’t
give thanks simply because they’re discontent over the perception that God
doesn’t move on their day timer.” I have
heard it well said that God created time, but He doesn’t wear a watch, and also
God is never late.
Next
is spiritual coldness to which we could call it lethargy. An example of this is the description that
Jesus gave of the church at Laodicea where He said: “14 "To the angel of the church in
Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the
creation of God, says this: 15 ’I know
your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or
hot. 16 ’So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you
out of My mouth.”
The last hindrance is just plain out rebellion. Rebellion
against the Lord because perhaps of something that has happened to you in your
life that you have blamed God for.
MacArthur writes the following on the last part of verse
eighteen “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” “The ‘in Christ Jesus’ modifies you, you who
are Christians, you who are in Christ Jesus.
For you this is God’s will.
There’s no point in God willing it for the world, they can’t truly and
constantly joyful, they cannot be in constant communion with the Lord, they
don’t even have a relationship and they’re certainly not going to be
thankful. But for you who are in Christ
Jesus, you who are in the body of Christ, you who have been joined to Him, this
will of God is placed on you as a mandate.”
This is done by God as seen in Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who is at
work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
One more important quote from MacArthur: “And by the way, these three commands,
rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, these three
commands penetrate the innermost recesses of the redeemed heart. They penetrate the innermost recesses of the
redeemed heart.
“You say, ‘What do you mean by that?’ They’re the best gauge on a person’s
spiritual condition. Did you get
that? They are the best gauge on a
person’s spiritual condition. Don’t
judge your spirituality by church attendance.
Don’t judge your spirituality by ministry activity. Don’t judge you spirituality by the fact that
you do your duty as a Christian…you give money, you show up at your Bible
study, whatever it might be. Don’t judge
your spirituality by the fact that you haven’t raped anybody, you haven’t
robbed anybody, you haven’t murdered anybody, you haven’t committed adultery,
you haven’t committed fornication, you haven’t lied and cheated on you income
tax, you haven’t abused your wife, you don’t abuse your children. Don’t judge your spirituality on that. God deeper than that.”
How do we go deeper than that? We rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and
in everything give thanks.
Spiritual meaning
for my life: By God’s grace I wish
to sort out the things that I am failing at and by the help of the Holy Spirit
care for them, and when I fail, I want to dust myself off and then start over
again remembering that a the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Remember what I wrote in the previous
section of my SD.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-6.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on
the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will
be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because
of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The magicians and sorcerers”
(Exodus 7:11).
Today’s Bible
question: “What sin caused 23,000 to
fall in one day?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/19/2014 10:22 AM
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