Friday, August 23, 2013

FILL MY CUP, LORD - 8

FILL MY CUP, LORD  8
Marilyn Barber
As printed in The Voice of Evangelism

November isn’t the only time our hearts need to be grateful to the Lord for His benefits.  It is a blessing that our country is still able to think of this as a nation and we pray it will continue to be so.  An important thought with which a Christian needs to be constantly filled is to have an attitude of gratitude.  This attitude will carry us through many times of discouragement and problems.  In the worst of times, we can always find things for which to be thankful.

David was a man full of praise and thanksgiving as he wrote psalm after psalm of thanks to God.  Ps.100:4   Enter His gates with thanksgiving…give thanks to Him…As David spoke before the assembly of Israelites, he reminded them of all that God gives and ended with an expression of thanksgiving. 1 Chron.29:13   In verse 14 David says that everything comes from You.  Why wouldn’t our hearts burst with thanksgiving?

1 Thess.5:18   Give thanks is a requirement for those in Christ.  Notice that this verse adds in all circumstances.  It is simple to give thanks when everything is going our way but in all circumstances?  That is not so simple.  If we are trying to live by God’s will, then this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  This reminds me of a little lady of 89 years as she was just coming our of surgery recovery.  As she went in and out, she would pray softly, “Count your many blessing, name them one by one.  Amen”.  She would say this over and over.  At times we don’t do this when we are in good health!

Not only do we give thanks in all circumstances, but we are to give thanks for everythingEph.5:20   It stands to reason that if we are to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, that we would be thankful for them.  Jam.1:2,3   We want to grow stronger in the Lord.  If we do not experience trials, we suffer atrophy just as a muscle that is not used.

It is important that whatever we say, do, or even think is worth giving thanks.  God knows and expects thanksgiving to come to Him in all these things.  Col.3:17   We say, do, and think in the name of Jesus as we give thanks.  Don’t smear the name of Jesus!  That is a definite possibility as live our lives supposedly for Him but in our own way.

Do we realize the tremendous price of our salvation?  Are we thankful or just take it for granted.  We have done what we needed to do but have we thanked the Lord for what He did.  We should be forever grateful with thanksgiving for the gift of salvation.  Paul realized how wretched he was before he came to Christ.  Rom.7:23,24   Then Paul bursts forth with this thanksgiving as he realized he had been rescued from death because of sin.  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Rom.7:25   We forget but when we remember, it should make us ever more thankful for His forgiveness in our salvation.

A reminder of our salvation is given as we partake of the Lord’s Supper—in remembrance of me.  As we remember, we give thanks for what our Lord did for us.  The Greek word for thanksgiving is eucharistia.  That Greek word means thanksgiving.  Many times the Lord’s Supper is called the Eucharist.  1 Cor.10:16   A great feeling of thankfulness should overcome us as we partake of the loaf and cup.

Phil.4:6   Our prayers aren’t complete without thanksgiving.  We find all kinds of things to ask for.  That’s a thanksgiving within itself—that we can ask within God’s will and know that He will hear us.  However, do we just ask and ask without attributing to our gracious God His lovingkindness and mercy in the way He takes care of our needs and provides for us everything we have as well as everything He enables us to do.  What a loving God we have!  He needs to be thanked many times during the day.

Paul tells Timothy to not only pray for everyone but to include thanksgiving for them.  Our country’s leaders need a lot of prayer but we can be thankful for the freedoms we retain and pray that we may continue to retain them.  Think of the authorities in those days under the Roman Empire1 Tim.2:1

Paul often gave thanks for congregations and individuals that had accepted the gospel of Christ and were following the Lord.  Rom.6:17 is one example of thanks for those who once were slaves of sin but now are following gospel teaching.  Paul gave thanks for the faith of the Ephesians in Eph.1:16.  Paul also gave thanks for the Colossians in Col.1:12.  Many congregations and Christians in other locations need our prayers as well as our thanks for their faith and endurance in trials.

Giving thanks before meals may be a simple exercise.  Is it just an exercise, a form, a habit for which we do not do wholeheartedly?  Many do not enjoy the plenty that we do.  We need to pray for them but how we need to thank the Lord for our sustenance.  Jesus prayed before He ate.  Matt.15:36   If we are eating in public or with guests, this can be a powerful testimony for the Lord.  Do not be ashamed.  Pray.with thanksgiving.


We can have victory over sin and death.  Thank be to God.  He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Cor.15:57   We never have to wonder what we can include in our thanks.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!   2 Cor.9:15   

STUMBLING BLOCKS or STEPPING STONES

STUMBLING BLOCKS or STEPPING STONES
Are you free in Christ, or are you bound in the chains of resentment against the hurts of a situation or against another human being?  At first you may answer in the negative.  Look deep inside, for this kind of “cancer” is eating out the heart of many a person and becoming a weight to Christian growth and chaining that person to unhappiness and discontentment.
When young, we dream of our mate, our home, our children, our career.  Our dreams become goals, but very often the reality works out so differently from those dreams.  Facing this reality and handling the problems that go along with reality can either become a stumbling block or a stepping stone in the life of a Christian.  As a Christian the realization begins to grow that these goal are earthy – not wrong – but not spiritual.  If we rely on Jesus for the goal He set for us in Matt.6:33, the lack of achievement in these realms will be lessened.  
Sometimes our Christian life is bogged down by a hurt that we feel someone intended to inflict upon us.  We may either accept or reject
it.  Nothing can hurt us unless we allow it to do so, for it is not the words said but the way we think and feel about it that hurts us.  We are free to refuse to be hurt by a spiteful or malicious word or act.  “Least said, soonest mended” is a good saying to remember.  Use Jam.1:3 as a stepping stone.  Get over it!
The best antidote for resentment is gratitude.  Giving cancels out such bad feelings.  Courtesy, warmth, and kindness shown and sown will eventually reap the same from whom the hurt has come.  If not, we at least can have a clear conscience before the Lord.  We must be sure our own conversation is worthy of the gospel.  Phil.1:27
At times we are all confronted with tasks or problems which seem more than we can bear.  As Christians we may claim the most wonderful promises from our God.  Ps.37:5   Are we using these problems as stepping stones, or are we taking all of yesterday’s problems to pile on today’s and then worrying about tomorrow as well.  Matt.6:34   We can take the many good things of which we cannot be blind, and then praise the Lord for them.  We take the problems of this day or even of this hour and tackle it with the help of God and do the very best we can.  With faith and trust we do not let ourselves be overwhelmed with all of the burdens we can remember.  Take one day at a time or even one hour at a time with God’s help and step forward.
Trusting in God will relieve us of many burdens we cannot handle nor solve.  If we will completely surrender to God’s will, it will cost us our self-will which really leads us into problems anyway.  2 Pet.1:6; Gal.5:23   This will give us a new release from many burdens that lead us into emotional turmoil.  We sometimes want to run away, but we always have to take ourselves with us.
Part of our problem in letting go and detaching ourselves from a problem is learning what we can manage.  Some things we can change; some things we cannot change.  Eph.5:21 tells us to submit to one another.  We cannot manipulate another person.  Each problem must be considered in the light of “Can I change it or not?”  If so, then accept the challenge if it be within the Lord’s will and do our best with His help.  If not, then detach ourselves from the problem.  This does not mean it will go away.  It simply means we are using it as a stepping stone.  It is an unmanageable for us.  However, we can always pray   Matt.5:44.
Never assume that the other person is the only problem.  It is so easy to justify our own thoughts and actions.  Matt.5:29,30   Our pride gets hurt, and we bite back.  Gal.5:15   Then in our minds we tell ourselves we had real reason and the “right” to do so.  We must know ourselves.  Jam.5:9   Take inventory of your own character, motives, attitudes, and actions without any justification.  Be honest with yourself, for God sees us the way things really are.  Heb.4:13   Then as we find wrongs we have committed, make amends.  Jam.5:16   It may not be accepted or returned.  This unmanageable and out of our control.  But we have done what we should and could.  Through it all, self-pity or martyrdom will completely nullify any good we may have done. 
We must remain humble before the Lord, for we know we sin and constantly need His forgiveness, and we constantly should be willing to forgive others.  Matt.6:15
In summary, whatever our problem, whether it be a person or a situation, the effect on us is whatever we choose it to be.  We can let the problem overwhelm us and become our stumbling block that weighs down our Christian life and constricts our spirit and service plus controlling our very being, or we can use the problem as a stepping stone to greater faith and trust in allowing God to handle our problems, detaching ourselves from hostilities and resentments and letting go of them, living just for today with joy and to the best of our ability in the Lord, and living with serenity and allowing the peace of God to rule our spirits.  Col.3:15   Serenity in the Lord helps cushion whatever happens on the outside of us.  True peace of mind depends on the condition inside, not outside.  Hostilities on the outside do not demand hostilities on the inside.  Will the problems in our lives be stumbling blocks or stepping stones?