This devotional is very needed by me. I have had two days full of frustrations, the final one being a big disappointment with an event I’ve been waiting for for 7 months suddenly being postponed for another month! OOOOO! Was I angry!
But, of course, the Holy Spirit immediately convicted me of thinking in human terms and that I’d set my heart on this event, making it my idol. It took gut-wrenching, teeth gritting obedience (through lifting my soul to God) to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving for this painful happening.
The bottom line, of course, is that God knows best. Who knows what He is protecting me from, what doors he is opening with this delay. And certainly he is putting his finger on my idol worship, calling me instead to join Him in what He is doing.
So here’s the devotional.
Lately the Lord has been reminding me of two familiar and important truths. The first is stated in Psalm 62:1, “My soul finds rest in God alone.” It is so easy to try and find my rest in other things, especially in seeking situations without tension, getting my way right now.
The second truth is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances….” I often forget that the thrust of my life should be to glorify God, primarily by thanking Him in and for all things.
He is using whatever circumstances surround me both for my good, and to bring about His will in the universe. Praising and thanking the Lord Jesus is such a freeing and empowering activity: “let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15) “so that the power of Christ may rest on me (2 Cor. 12:9).
Praise is one very practical way of taking “up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16).
So I want to continually live in the rest that only God can give and to honor Him by giving thanks in all circumstances. These are what God calls us to. Are we joining Him in His great plan, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving and thereby fulfilling our part in the restoration of the universe?
No I haven’t but I’m going to.
Prayer: “Father, help me to remember these basic truths and to live them each day, resting in who you are and thanking you in and for all things. Amen.”
