SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/1/2019 8:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: To Whom are
we to be Thankful?—God the Father
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:20
Message of the
verses: “always
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”
Let us begin today’s SD by looking
at Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” We can see from this verse that it is God the
Father who has given to us every spiritual blessing, and so that is why we are
to give all genuine thanks to God the Father.
As I think about this I go back to before time began and think about how
in eternity past that God the Father was the Person of the trinity who devised
a plan to give a bride to His Son and thus when the time was right He sent His
Son into the world: Gal. 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, born under the Law.”
Then of course we can think about John 3:16 too “"For God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
These verses help us to understand what God the Father planned for His
Son in eternity past, and thus that not only giving of His Son, but also the
killing of the Son was all a part of God’s plan in order to provide a bride for
His Son. This is why as our verse instructs
us that we are to give our thanks to God, even the Father.
I would like to site one move verse
in order to help us understand why we are to give thanks to God the
Father: “Every good thing given and
every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with
whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
John MacArthur writes “Even those
things that come through others comes from God.
We should be grateful for what anyone does for us, and we should thank
them for it. But thankfulness to others
will likely be little more than flattery if we do not acknowledge that the true
source of the gift is God.”
“For even though they knew God, they
did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21). This verse shows us that the mark of the
unsaved person is thanklessness to God, however the mark of the Spirit-filled
believers is “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ to God, even the
Father.” The Spirit-filled
believer is “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving [lets his] requests be made know to God (Phil. 4:6). Not only that but he is “overflowing with gratitude”
as seen in Col. 2:7) and he also continues to offer “up sacrifices of praise to
God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name” as seen in
Hebrews 13:15.l
John MacArthur concludes this
section by writing “A city missionary in London was called to an old tenement
building where a woman lay dying in the last stages of a terrible disease. The room was cold and she had nowhere to lie
but on the floor. When the missionary
asked if there was anything he could do, she replied, ‘I have all I really
need; I have Jesus Christ.’ Deeply
moved, the missionary went home and penned these words:
‘In the heart of London City,
Mid the dwellings of the poor,
These bright and golden words were
uttered,
‘I have Christ. What want I more?’
Spoken by a lonely woman dying on a
garret floor,
Having not one earthly comfort,
‘I have Christ. What want I more?’”
There is one more small section to
look at in this 20th chapter of MacArthur’s commentary and I think
that I will save it for tomorrow even though it may well be the shortest SD
that I will ever write.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The story
of the poor dying woman from London has moved my heart a lot. This woman who had nothing of human value had
the Lord as her Lord and Savior and that was all that she needed. It reminds me of a song.
Give Me Jesus
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
When I am alone
When I am alone
Oh, when I am alone
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Jesus
Give me Jesus
When I come to die
When I come to die
Oh, when I come to die
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
My Steps of Faith for Today:
The woman in the story was certainly
filled with the Holy Spirit and this means that she was a very humble person,
something that I am trying to learn.
Today’s quotation is from Oswald Chambers who
stated “Never compromise with those who water down the Word of God to human
experience.”
8/1/2019 8:42 AM
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