Thank God for What We Cannot Lose
When we express our gratitude to God, it’s easy to emphasize material prosperity and the qualities of life that are wonderful to have but easy to lose. Good health is a great blessing, but it could be gone tomorrow. Into the most loving families and friendships, death intrudes when we least expect it. Our tables may be loaded with food today, but we could be out of work tomorrow and wondering about our next meal.
Today I want you to think about a new approach to giving thanks today? Instead of focusing on the traditional areas of food, family, and friends, let’s thank God for what we cannot lose.
Five things believers can not lose:
·
1. The Love Of Christ
1. The Love Of Christ35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[a] 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
·2. Eternal life
2. Eternal life 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
Jn. 10:28
·3. Forgiveness
3. Forgiveness 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 Jn. 1:9
·4 God’s presence
4 God’s presence5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you."
Heb. 13-5
·5. Access to the Lord through prayer (Heb. 4:15-16).
5. Access to the Lord through prayer (Heb. 4:15-16).15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Heb. 4:15-16
Amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, and average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children:
"Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things had done
In whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mother’s arms
Hath led us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.”
Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
Adapted From: www.bible.org, original source: Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997, page for November 27.
