Trinity of Thanks – God Meets All Our Needs
Purity 480 07/26/2021 Purity 480 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo comes to us from yours truly as I was seated up front on a
morning boating excursion on Lake George on Saturday under magnificent blue
skies that filled me with awe, wonder, and abounding gratitude. The thrill of speeding across the huge lake,
added to the joy over the weather, the environment, the company, and the
context of my overall journey of life and relationship with God had my spirits
soaring and had me giving thanks to My God for bringing me to this day that
proved the be the uncontested highlight of the summer of 21 by far!
I am a teacher of Christian discipleship, which is basically the process
of being a life student of the Lord and continually bringing Him into the
context of our lives. So as we go about
our day, we are in a constant conversation with the Lord in which we can
examine the past, observe the present, and contemplate the future while always considering
the blessings God has provided and the wisdom that He would have us live
by. Living like this takes your attention
but when you do it, the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit of peace, joy,
goodness, faithfulness, kindness, patience, self-control and love just become a
normal part of your daily experience of life.
I say all that to say this. As you are “walking in the Spirit”, it only
becomes natural for you to become overwhelmed by emotions at time as you are
regularly given revelations of what the events of your life mean in the context
of your faith and the part God plays in it.
When you get glimpses of this “big picture”, you generally praise the Lord
and thank Him for not only bringing you through the circumstances in your life and
providing for you, but you also thank Him for the ability to “see it all”. When that happens to me I often erupt in
thanksgiving with a trinity of gratitude saying: Thank You GOD! Thank You
JESUS! Thank You HOLY SPIRIT!
So as we were cruising over Lake George I was just grinning from ear to
ear over the magnificence of the day and that smile reappears when I
contemplate it. In reviewing the photos
this morning, I chose this one for today because of these three separate cloud
formations in remembrance of being “OH so thankful” to God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
As I was later resting in a “floaty” in the surprisingly warm waters of
Lake George, I was reminded of the
overall context of my journey of life and faith over the course of the last
couple of years with the ending of my marriage, my exodus to a new home, my
completion of my masters degree, and working two jobs during a worldwide
pandemic to come to this wonderful day with others who have also suffered their
own trials of heartache in the same season of chaos and who are also connected
to Our heavenly Father to emerge into new lives of hope, and all I could think
was think was “God is good!” and
“Thank You God, Thank You Jesus, Thank You Holy Spirit… for all that You
are, for all that You do, and for all that you have brought us through. Thank You
for this day and for all the days to come with You!”
This morning’s meditation
verse is:
Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)
19 And my God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Today’s verse reminds us that all our needs are met by God
and through Jesus Christ.
We all grow up independently of God for the most part and we
are taught the ways of the world by our families, friends, teachers, and our
life experiences. We learn philosophies
that tell us not to trust anyone, to only look out for ourselves, and to go
after the things you want in life. Depending on your upbringing there will be
varying degrees of focus on the importance of family and moral integrity in how
you live your life. These life experiences,
viewpoints, philosophies, moral standards, and one’s personal interpretations of
how they will live individually determine how we will choose to pursue the
things we need and want as well as what we determine to be a “need” or a
want.
Our view can define preferences or wants as “needs”. For Instance, I need a house with 3 bedrooms,
a two-car garage, and a swimming pool. That was only an example. I don’t need a pool.
I just need friends who regularly invite me to their pools.
But seriously, our perspective defines what we consider a “need”. Our basic needs are food, water, shelter, purpose,
and love.
My worldly friends would agree with that list but would
challenge me to prove how my God is going to provide all these things.
I have often encountered faithless people in my life, I met
lots of them because I was one of them for a long time. Some would openly cry
out to heaven and challenge God to give them something or even tempt Him to
take their lives, only to claim He’s seeming inaction as proof for either His
lack of power, care, or existence.
While I would admit that God doesn’t answer our whims like a
genie in a bottle, I would insist that we would all have to give God credit
where credit was due.
I would explain that because God has created our world and
put things in it that we can manipulate to provide us with the food, water, and
shelter that we need and because He has given us the capacity to understand and
the ability to work to meet those needs, I would say that God not only provides
for our basic physical needs but He also gives us the basic purpose of working
to meet our needs.
While that might not seem fair to some people, that we must acknowledge
our world as being provided by God and that we must work, if we are honest we
would have to acknowledge that God is good for giving us the resources and
abilities to meet our needs.
Some may say that’s all well and good but would question God’
ability to provide love for us. Again
I would point to the people that God has provided for us and while we might not
all be blessed with a romantic soul mate partnership, there are very virtually
no people who can claim that they never knew the love of family, friends, or pets.
I know that some would claim that’s cheating. Some bitter people were going to claim having
no love in their lives, but I widened the spectrum from the present moment to
encompass all the time of your life and even included the animal kingdom as
possible sources of love, but when you walk in faith you look at the big
picture of all that God gives us and you don’t dwell too much on the past, the
present, or the future.
A bad past or present can be overcome with a good future.
While time might be running out on our lives and we may feel that we can’t manipulate
the people or things of this world in a manner that will give us back the love
that we lost or the love that we “really” need, I would invite you to draw closer
to God to discover the greatest love of all.
God’s love is unconditional.
He loves us no matter what. This is proven by Christ’s sacrifice to pay
for our sins. Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and He lived a perfect life and
died to make a way to reconcile mankind to God.
If we respect God and utilize the Way He provide us, by
putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we will be able to experience a love that
will surpass any that we have ever known through lovers, family, friends, or
pets.
When we place our faith in Christ, God in the person of the
Holy Spirit comes to indwell us. Scripture tells us that God is love and that
God is spirit. The pure love of God Himself comes to dwell in us.
When we invite Him into our lives, seek His truth and
presence, and live by His ways, our lives become living expressions of the love
of God as we realize our greater purpose of glorifying God and sharing His love
with others.
So, if you think God doesn’t provide for your needs, think again,
and accept His invitation to an abundant life of purpose and love that never
ends.
As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk.
Today we continue with Dr. Neil Anderson’s Victory
Over the Darkness, concluding Chapter 8.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Dr. Anderson’s books for your own private study
and to support his work. If you need this title you can find it online at several
sites for less than $15.00:
Proper
Guidelines Lead to a Proper Walk
8.
Peace. Key Concept: Establishing Internal Order
Peace on earth, good will toward men; that is what
everybody wants. That is a great desire but a wrong goal. Nobody can guarantee
external peace because nobody can control people or circumstances. Nations sign
and break peace treaties with frightening regularity. One group of peace
marchers confronts another group of peace marchers, and they end up beating
each other over the head with their placards. Couples lament that there would
be peace in their home “if only he/she would shape up.”
The peace of God is internal, not
external. Peace with God is something you already have (see Romans 5:1). The
peace of God is something you need to appropriate daily in your inner
world in the midst of the storms that rage in the external world (see John 14:27).
A lot of things can disrupt your
external world because you can’t control all your circumstances and
relationships. You can control the inner world of your thoughts and
emotions, however, by daily allowing the peace of God to rule in your heart.
Chaos may be occurring all around you, but God is bigger than any storm. I keep
a little plaque on my desk that reminds me: “Nothing will happen to me
today that God and I cannot resolve.” Personal worship, prayer and
interaction with God’s Word enable us to experience the peace of God (see Phil. 4:6, 7; Col. 3:15, 16).
Often when I share these eight
critical points of the Christian’s belief system, I hear people say,
“Well, I suppose that’s true, but I still believe . . .” Which will
they live by: what they acknowledge as true or what they “still
believe”? Always the latter—always! Walking by faith is simply
choosing to believe what God says is true and to live accordingly by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Victory
Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ.
—————————more tomorrow————————
God bless
you all!
Join our “Victory
over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via
the mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts,
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian
Discipleship
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