Thanksgiving
November 23rd, 2009
Seeing that this is the week of thanksgiving but not wanting to be corny or regurgitate slogans, sayings or phrases of times gone by, let me just say that I am sure thankful that God had an end game in mind and its execution is in process with its culmination on the horizon.
My hope and prayer for each person reading this, as for myself, is that we would not only acknowledge this to be true but to also participate with Him in seeing it fulfilled.
This past week I have been reading in 1st and 2ndThessalonians and was struck by the different admonitions given by Paul which I believe were done with God’s end game in mind.
What really stands out to me is found in 1st Thessalonians 5 where the apostle reminds us “to be self-controlled, to put on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”, I just love that because if we just do something as basic as this, think how all of your relationships would be affected.
Think about it, what if each day that you woke up in the morning, you purposefully prayed and asked God to enable you to live a self controlled life? Living this way would not only help eliminate much of the excess that we engage in; whether it be food, consumer goods or entertainment, but also those nagging and besetting sins. Yeah those “things” we engage in when we don’t think anyone notices or cares, yet it is these things or sinful behaviors that we chose to say yes to, to self indulge in because they provide us with some sort of power, release or satisfaction. Unfortunately though this is just a temporary fix and before long we find ourselves back where we started from or worse we discover were actually held hostage.
Ahhh, but thanks be to God that He has an end game and it has been executed for you and for me with the goal to bring us freedom.
Freedom is a powerful word, especially for those who live in bondage to something or to someone.
Our freedom rests in Jesus and the work that was accomplished on the cross and resultantly can produce within us a new life; a life hidden in Christ with God.
Living in this new life then enables us the power to actually live out a self controlled life because we are no longer the one in charge of our life and yet this is where many of us lose it. We fail to accept the fact that conversion means giving up one’s control of life, dying in fact, so that one more powerful can take over and live in and through us to bring about life transformation for the sole purpose of displaying the works and grace of God.
You and I literally become living testimonies or examples of God’s power provided we live lives that are surrendered to him. The desire for this type of life though may not be exactly appealing unless of course you have lived a life in turmoil or bondage and if so, then freedom and its cost is an easy transaction to make.
I know for me life here on earth has purpose and meaning yet only when it is lived out from this perspective for it is from this that I see I have meaning, purpose and self-worth and not just me but all those who believe.
How then shall I live here on earth in the interim? How about allowing faith and love to govern or dictate all of life’s activity and this be fuelled by the hope of salvation which will one day literally take place.
Salvation, one day? Wasn’t that something that already happened with a simple prayer? Yes, for your sin, for the reconciling work that brought you back to God but there is another salvation which I am referring to. This salvation is our home coming, that point in the future when our Father, our One true Loving Father, our Deliverer, our Hope and yes, our Salvation brings us home. Home, that is where I want to be; home with the one who made me free and ultimately will free me from this broken hurt, confused body of flesh. A new body, a new life, a new future; an eternity, that is what I am talking about, an eternity of relationship and intimacy with the One in whose image we are all made.
Until then how shall we live?
We can start with being thankful for all that God has done for us, we can get alone with Him and worship Him for His gift of life. Furthermore, we can choose to live life in pursuit of Him because we know He is pursuing us. Think with me, how cool to be intimate with the Creator, it can be had. We can hear Him speak to us and tell us whose we are and where He first saw us. We can hear His words of pleasure and delight for us and we can hear Him affirm the work in our life.
Let’s live life this way; grateful and thankful for being called and chosen by God for relationship with Him, handpicked, if you will, to accomplish something very unique and special. In fact, we are God’s painting to others, His work which others will admire thereby bringing glory to His name. This can and will happen as long as we surrender our life to Him each and every day.
Join me in this, the World needs it, no, actually I need it first; fill me Lord because I’m empty.
Amen! Happy Thanksgiving…Isaiah 61:1