Thankfulness

I am so glad that I was able to come home last weekend to see many of you! Each time I come home, I am amazed at how much you are all growing and maturing. I continue to pray that your growth wouldn't just be in age or height, but also spiritually.

I subscribe to a daily devotional that I read to remind me of God's truth. If you are interested, you can always buy a devotional book or find a Bible study book to go through the Bible. You can probably even download it on your IPad! I subscribe to John Piper's Daily Devotional, and it's a good, short read. If you have any questions about it, feel free to email me!

In the last two days, the devotionals have been about thankfulness. It has been reminding me that even though America officially celebrates thankfulness one day out of the year, that every day and moment should be an outpouring of thankfulness to God. For everyone, we are usually not very thankful for the things we have. We always want more. We want the newest IPad or the newest game or to watch the newest show. We want better clothes or friends or gadgets. We are never satisfied.

As a Christian, we are called to believe that our God is sovereign and is in control of everything. We are also called to believe that He alone gives good gifts. If we understand that, we must know that any good gift has been given to us by God--not because of anything we have done but because of what He has freely given to us. If we understand that only God gives us good things, we know exactly who to thank, and we realize how much and how often we need to thank God.

However, we often fail to give thanks to God because we often want to glorify ourselves. We think that we have done something to deserve the good and the bad things we have in life. We forget that God is sovereign and is in control. He has a plan. 

And what about non-believers? What happens to them? Many non-believers (if they give thanks at all), thank their friends or families or teachers, and most of the time themselves. They can never give thanks to God because they do not know who God is They do not realize how much God has given them and how much God loves them. However, I have hope and faith that God still works through a thankful heart of a non-believer to seek after where all these good things can come from. Hopefully a heart of thankfulness will spur them to understand who they should give thanks to.

So as a Christian, we have two tasks: 1) Give thanks to God for EVERYTHING because He has given blessings to us without our merit and 2) Share with those who do not believe in God, how amazing and generous our God is so they can know who to thank for everything in their lives.

Until next time,