For what it's worth, I want you to know that I haven't read ahead and done the devotions before you. I wanted to learn together. So, each day, I read and am confronted just like you are. I love how day by day, the foundation is being built for great truth and learning to take place. PLEASE don't miss it by rushing through or waiting until Saturday or Sunday afternoon right before Choir practice to read through the previous week's material. You will miss it if that's the case.
Today, this Biblical principle of Thanksgiving and Praise isn't a shallow or simple truth. Just like in the devo's example of a life situation that took the couple by storm, they were faced, like we all are, with life circumstances out of their control and to be thankful in them? Impossible, it seems! The truth of I Thess 5:18 is the key: be thankful IN the circumstance, not because of them. The only way this will be is if you have an "upward" focus on the Sovereignty of God and take refuge in Him.
Look at this played out in one of my favorite passages:
Lamentations 3:
16 He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. 17 Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!” 19 The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. 21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness;his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
Today, this Biblical principle of Thanksgiving and Praise isn't a shallow or simple truth. Just like in the devo's example of a life situation that took the couple by storm, they were faced, like we all are, with life circumstances out of their control and to be thankful in them? Impossible, it seems! The truth of I Thess 5:18 is the key: be thankful IN the circumstance, not because of them. The only way this will be is if you have an "upward" focus on the Sovereignty of God and take refuge in Him.
Look at this played out in one of my favorite passages:
Lamentations 3:
16 He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. 17 Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!” 19 The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. 21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness;his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
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