Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
I’m sorry for being away, I’ve been holding off on typing for the longest time. I am aware that I am very behind on my 1000-word a day obligation and I’m going to try to make up the difference today. Definitely not going to make it out of the red, as I’m assuming I’m more or less 10 days off, but I’ll take a chunk out of it.. through this.
What’s been going on? Good question. A lot. As I keep typing I’m going to say that I may or may not be going into detail into what HAS been going on, it all depends on the flow.
I will say, however, that as of late, things have been… well, trying. I think I can say that as early as the start of this week – in fact, on Monday morning, things turned pear-shaped for me pretty quickly. I’ll just say I was trading, and I was hit hard by unforeseen circumstances… actually, a whole bunch of us have had a sizable amount wiped away from our business capital because of what’s been happening around the world, specifically last August 5.
It was a bloodbath.
So there was that, and there was also a setback on another venture, and I probably won’t go into much detail on this one – I will comment, however, that the inconsistencies of some prominent government agencies have impacted us in such a way that we’ve been demoralized, and much of our precious time and money has been spent.
But through all this, I WILL say that while it’s expected of the rest of the world to complain, we give thanks to the Holy Spirit, poured out upon us through Christ and His finished work – why? Well, through the Holy Spirit we are guided to go beyond complaining, and thanking God.
We thank God, even in times when we could have avoided setbacks and bad things happening to us – We thank Him, because we know that before, during, and after all these bad incidents, Christ guaranteed the promise in His word, where He says that He will never leave us nor forsake us… through Christ, we take heart in the truth – the promise that nothing could ever separate us from Him and His love. Even in these incidents, and even in the resultant condemnation and overthinking, we thank God for being with us, being as close to us as He always is.
If you’ve been following me you’ll know that it’s been my personal default to thank God, going as far as quoting 2 Thessalonians 5, where Paul says to give thanks in everything, ‘for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus’.
Recently, however, I’m being coaxed – is coaxed the word? No, I’m being led to push – not the cliche (P)ray (U)ntil (S)omething (H)appens, but beyond being thankful for His manifest presence, I’m literally begging God to move. My exact choice of words would be something like, ‘Lord, please move in this situation, and don’t just move, but move in such a way that when you DO move, we would know it was You who moved, without any doubts’.
And I’d end all of that with ‘Father, in this situation, and in all our situations and circumstances, be glorified’… cue instrumental of the old song performed by Maranatha with very similar lyrics.
I thank God. Right now, I’m just being led to thank Him, back to the default state. I know a couple of friends who may not necessarily be content with being thankful right now, considering the gravity of their own situations and circumstances… and this just reminds me that the TRUE default state does not merely consist of gratitude and thankfulness, but, well, we go back to what else Paul told the Thessalonians in that second epistle – that is, before ‘in everything give thanks’, he said, ‘Rejoice always, and pray without ceasing’.
And you know how I’ll always say that it’s not so easy to rejoice all the time, but we can certainly give thanks… but today, I guess I’m being led to say that we match the escalation of events happening from the inside out and from the outside in – how? By matching thanksgiving with prayer, and prayer with thanksgiving.
Oh, how we need that now – much more than the actual resolution to our problems, and much more than our being taken away or rescued from said issues, we certainly need peace…
…and this peace comes through prayer and thanksgiving, and thanksgiving and prayer. We’re reminded through Paul’s reminder to the Philippians:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6-7
I’ve been reminded of how prayer and thanksgiving come together, but here we read, in Paul’s words, how it’s been something we’ve been doing all along, whether we’ve been aware of it or not. For see, he says, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Whether we cry out to God in prayer, matched with thanksgiving, or we go the other way around – Thanking Him, and in so doing, praying – the result remains the same: We get what we really need in this life, and that is, peace.
And not just any peace, mind you, but the peace of God – divine peace that ‘surpasses all understanding’, and guards our hearts AND our minds in Christ Jesus.
And I’ll be honest with you – You think that through all this trial, I’ve actually been thanking God and praying? Well, not as consistently as I want to, because sin, from the outside in and from the inside out, being the enemy that has not been defeated yet, has me thinking other thoughts with regards to coping to all this pressure. It’s been a battle between giving in to the seemingly ‘natural’ demands of instant gratification, and praying and thanking God in all this crisis.
You’d think I’d know better, but well, I STILL thank God, especially in my flaws, my stumbling, and my struggles… because beyond the promise of His word which I hold on to – that is, of His presence with me no matter what, and how He is with me, faithful to me even when I am faithless; BEYOND this, I know (1) He moves, on the basis that He is faithful to finish the work He began in us, and (2) He moves, above and beyond my senses and thoughts, faithful to work all things for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purpose.
With all this, am I prescribing to myself, and to everyone who’s miraculously made it this far into my rambling, to pray and give thanks? Sure, that’s a good thing for us to be doing in the body of Christ… but I see now, the root of all this is merely going back to trusting in the Lord.
Because, see, we ultimately pray because we trust in Him, just as we thank Him and attribute glory and honor to Him, again, because we trust in Him.
“O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”
Psalm 39:4-7
I praise and thank God for you today, and I am with you in trusting Him, in all your encounters, anxieties, frustrations, setbacks, problems, issues, circumstances, situations, desires, and everything else. Let us stay vigilant, praying to Him and thanking Him, and thanking Him as we pray to Him.
Our hope is in Him.
Until the next post, God bless us all.
211850/365000
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment