Come Ye Thankful, part 3

HE remembered us in our weakness. He saved us from our enemies. He gives food to every living thing. Give thanks to the God of heaven. Psalm 136:22-26

Well, here we are on our third and final session reflecting on this beautiful Psalm of praise. I hope our time on this verse has brought you to His throne of thanksgiving by its reminders of all He has done. It has me and may He continually remind us of His faithfulness. Today is one of those reminders for us....

I would like to focus on verse 25. "He gives food to every living thing." HIS PROVISION OF FOOD... How often do you, especially those of us in the USA, pause to give honest, heartfelt thanks for the food He provides for you? I mean each and every time you pause to eat. Now here in the US we have food everywhere. Grocery stores, Warehouse stores, Quickie marts, Drive thru's, restaurants, road side produce stands and even now with the spring and summer upon us in the back yard.

Just yesterday evening I had the privilege of walking on the edge of my yard up next to a patch of tall brush. Two of my granddaughters followed (or shall we say led the way) as we leaned into the brushy area to pick Blackberries. What a blessing. Not only the berries but also the kids. Each a gift from my heavenly Father. Watching them munch on the berries of HIS provision brings me much blessing even this morning as I remember this...

Do you see that? Have you paused to reflect on His provision for you lately? James 1:17 says... "every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights." The God who created the evening lights (stars and moon) gives to us EVERY good gift is from His hands. Let's reflect on a few gifts on this beautiful day.

HIS Provision of Life... Have you paused to thank Him for the life He has given you? I am not speaking of the life you are living as in present CIRCUMSTANCES, but life itself. HE has given you LIFE itself. In Genesis it says He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. Gen 2:7

Life is the privilege to connect with God and His creation. It really is awesome when you see the bigger picture. Everything about us is designed to do that. Look at your body and all of the senses HE has given you. Hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and touching. Walking, running, sitting and standing to name a few more of those blessed privileges. Each of these are gifts (provisions) from God so we can connect with His world and yes HIM. When you lose one or part of one you will understand what I mean. Praise Him for His provision for you.

HIS Provision of Relationship... Here is where some of us will be stretched a bit perhaps. Have you thanked God for those He has placed around you? Your spouse, children, parents and even friends (if they point you to Christ). Now sadly we sometimes bring relationships into our lives that do not bless our life and suffer the consequences for our actions. But God's provisions bring His blessings to us. As we develop and build those godly relationships we will see His hand in each one of them.....if we are honestly looking.

Scripture teaches us that "faithful are the wounds of a friend." Pro 27:6 Even when friends wound us God uses that for good. He has a plan. Our godly spouses are His provision for us. Our godly children and parents are His provision for us. Have you given HIM thanks for His relational provision for you?

His financial provision! Many are realizing the blessing they had in the past. Sometimes we do not see His blessing until it is taken away. In good times and bad we must realize God is our provider. We often forget that however when we are riding the "wave" of good times. I have seen quite a change in some attitudes toward work in the last few years. Many who would often gripe or complain about their jobs today are just thankful to have one. Others are on the "rack" of stretching, living each day without a job while working hard to find one. God still provides.... those testimonies are such a blessing.

His blessing of peace and joy... Is there peace in your heart? Do you have the blessing of joy filling your soul? If you do (and every believer should) it has come from your Fathers hand of blessing to you. You did not earn this nor do we deserve this. But He has given this to us because He loves us. He does not desire for the curse that rests upon this world and humanity to rob us of the joy of Life.....

He has, by His power, chosen to fill us with His Spirit and He brings us peace... sweet peace into our lives. No matter what our struggles....He can calm those troubled waters...if we allow HIM to... Scripture again says "the peace of God will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil 4:7 HIS Joy is called Joy unspeakable in scripture..Does that describe you today...filled with peace and joy....It can and should... He has provided ALL we need for life and godliness...

I could write a book on the blessings of His provision for all of us. But in the blogger world I am already in the land of nono by my the length of this. Shall we say that if we will press the pause button on our life and reflect on all of HIS provisions you will find yourself thanking God for His faithfulness. He has done so much for us.

Father, thank you....for just being you. So faithful, so gracious, so good! Forgive me that I am not as thankful as I should be. That I often do not see all you have done and provided. Open my eyes and let me see, that I may thank you and praise your most worthy name!

Thank Him for His provision for YOU....
You'll be glad you did!
Blessings
Bruce

Come Ye Thankful part 2

As we gather around His table again today let me encourage you to review Psalm 136 with me again. It is a quick 26 verses. We will again focus our hearts on the last four....

He remembered us in our weakness. He saved us from our enemies. He gives food to every living thing. Give thanks to the God of heaven... 22-26

Of course the meat of what we are wrapping our thoughts around is the fact that we should be thankful to our great God. Yesterday's verse reminded us of how He has helped and continues to help us in our weakness. I rejoice in that personally. Humbled and thankful for His presence in my life.

Now today I want us to reflect a bit on the second part.... HE SAVED US FROM OUR ENEMIES... Now for the Jew at the time of the writing of this Psalm there had been multitudes of enemies. Just a little reflection on this....Egyptians, Philistines, Hittites, Amorites, Moabites and the Arameans. The list was innumerable for them. Time after time they had seen God not only protect them but in many instances supernaturally work to deliver them and give them total victory. For that they were to come and give HIM thanks...

But what about us? Has He done anything like that for us? Have we enemies that stand in our path and seek to destroy us? I would say definitely! Our first enemy is SIN. Some may not think this is our greatest enemy but I do, because this enemy resides within every human being. Our nature towards sin and sinfulness is far greater than any of us can truly imagine. It runs deeper and further than we know.

Left to grow and develop to maturity in our lives SIN leads us to DEATH. Most of us do not consider that each time we are tempted but that is what God's word and life's experience teaches. Destroyed lives litter the highway of life. Broken marriages, broken homes and broken lives are the fruit of sin. BUT HE SAVED US FROM OUR ENEMIES!

When we trust Christ to save us from our sin the scripture teaches us that "we are no longer slaves to sin." Rom 6:6 and also shows us..." we were set free from the power of sin." These wonderful truth's and their personal reality bring me to thanksgiving....How about you?

Another enemy is Satan. He rules this world and is called the prince of the power of the air. He guides the affairs of the world and of unregenerated people directing them and the world system to their ultimate destruction. We are a fly in his ointment. As Christians, we are in the dead center of his target. His goal is to destroy Christ, Christ followers and anything that speaks of Christ.

Again, Christ has broken Satan's power just as HE did the power of sin....Heb. 2:14.."only by dying could could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death." No longer do we have to fear this enemy. In fact Eph 6 teaches us to stand strong in the Lord in the power of HIS (God's) might against the schemes, plans, desires of the devil. Satan was and is defeated by the power of Christ!

Another enemy is fear. How many times do we allow fear to control a decision or affect a relationship. How many times do we avoid or deny because we fear what may or may not happen? All I can say is that God's word teaches us this enemy also is defeated. "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. 2 Tim. 1:7 We do not need to fear because HE has given us power to overcome. We are more than conquerers, so much so Paul wrote and said to us " I can do all things through Christ who is my strength." Phil 4:13

HE is worthy of our continual thanksgiving because HE has SAVED us from our enemies. This list of course was not exhaustive but each and every enemy should be brought to Christ. Watch them bow before HIM in submission to HIS power and authority. Take time today to thank HIM for all the ways HE has saved you from all of YOUR enemies.....

You'll be glad you did!!!

Blessings

Bruce