Thanksgiving
God loves when we thank him for what he did through his son on our behalf. According to Luke 17:12 = 18, “And as he (Jesus) entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger?”
Only the Samaritan came back to thank Jesus. The others who must have been Judeans went to see the high priest to declare them healed according to the Old Testament Levitical law. The Samaritan rejoicing, returned to thank Jesus who himself is God’s true high priest according to the New Testament law of the spirit of life in Christ.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed to his Heavenly Father, If there be any other way, let this cup of suffering, sin, death and wrath of judgement pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. His prayer was to align his heart with his Father’s heart. Trough suffering, pain, tribulation and trials, our Father will teach us what really matters…to glorify God. For he who knew no sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
God will teach us the meaning of thankfulness through the trials of life. Pete and his wife Suzan learned this difficult lesson many years ago. It was just another an ordinary day. Pete’s wife Suzan wife was nine months pregnant and he was shooting hoops with some friends. Pete received a call that said, “your wife’s in labor.” He rushed home and took her to the hospital. His job was to help her breath to focus her attention on her breathing instead of the labor pains. The doctors looking at the monitors said to Pete, “you need to go to the Father’s waiting room. We’re losing the baby’s heartbeat and need to go in and take the baby by C-section.”
Pete went into the closet in the father’s waiting room and prayed, “Lord, please save my wife and my baby.” God answered audibly, “Pete, how much control do you have over this situation?” Pete answered, “I have no control. You have all control. You’re the Sovreign God.” God said, “If I’m Sovreign, will you purpose in your heart to serve, honor, trust, and praise me no matter what happens to Suzan and your baby?” Pete asked himself, what if they died? He had pondered this question before: why would anyone praise God if they lost their wife and child? Pete had been studying the depth of God’s call. He said to himself, this is deep water Christianity. Is God Sovreign? Is God good? Does he have a good plan and a purpose for me? Can I praise him in all things? In times of trial, we are lifted from the things of this world into the things of the spirit of life in Christ. What good am I if I only praise him and thank him when He cleanses me from leprosy and heals me from all my diseases? Am I thankful for all his decisions with my best interest in mind regardless of my feelings? Can I trust him in the things that are most precious to me?
Are you the kind of man to whom God can help himself? Only one of ten lepers came back to thank Jesus for healing him. What if he had not been healed. Would he still have been thankful that God could use him through his pain and suffering?
As soon as they performed the C-section, a team of doctors rushed into the delivery room to intervene to save the baby’s life. Pete and his wife were sent to a hospital room to await the news about their new baby. Thirty minutes later, one doctor came into the hospital room and said, “I’m sorry but we lost your baby son.”
As they mourned the loss of their newborn son, Pete read to Suzan from a devotional called “Come Away My Beloved” by Francis Roberts, He read a passage about comfort and affliction. It was as if Jesus himself were sitting on the hospital bed holding their hands to comfort them… as though Jesus himself were ministering to a young couple whose baby he had allowed to die: “How often have I promised you and not kept my word? I deepen you in the furnace of affliction and I purify your soul in the crucible of pain.” To grow into maturity, God will try us to deepen our resolve to serve him no matter what. To be Lord of all he must be Lord in all…especially through the crucible of affliction. Therefore, trust in the Lord with all thing heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. To make his way our way and his heart our heart is to praise God through tribulation, pain and affliction. “I’ll bring you to new victories through what seems as a wind of destruction. I am your purpose and your hope when you relinquish yourself to me.”
People and worldly relationships will end in pain and suffering. There is only one who is faithful. Therefore trust in the Lord with all thine heart. When we have no control, then we can relinquish our will to his will. The Lord will say, “Hold fast to my hand and rest in my love. I have you in my own intensive care. Of this you can be very certain.”
God said, ”your own power is an empty well. Draw from the well of my abundant grace and mercy. You will be equipped to communicate confidence through this trial. Heaven rejoices when you go through trials with a singing spirit.”
Through the trials of life, God will teach us what really matters. For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. In Oswald Chamber’s devotional for November 1, Chambers writes, “God will break up our lives and make us a thoroughfare for himself and for others to walk upon. No human can stand that unless he’s sanctified by our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot bear up through the suffering in our own power. If we depend on ourselves, we’ll be a clog to God’s purpose. He’ll try us and temper us so that we’re emptied of ourselves. Through the doorway of heartbreak we will come to understand the fellowship of His suffering. God will rescue us through the grip of his son’s nail pierced hands. If God can teach us his purpose through the trial, then thank God for breaking our heart.”
The trials are the opportunities to let his mercy and grace shine through us. This is the purpose of our life…that we should be to the praise fo the glory of his grace. The trial will teach us what really matters. Therefore in everything give thanks. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.
May we ever give thanks for his loving kindness and tender mercy that we should live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael