Wednesday – April 13, 2016
Praise and thanksgiving be to the living God for and in all things to show the goodness of God, the only living and true God. It is Wednesday, hump day, and our Arabian camel (one hump) is really sounding off about the goodness of God. I suppose this is akin to the rocks crying out. Now, back to our primary text and on to the topic of thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-8 (KJV)
6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Bold added verse seven)
As we discussed yesterday, thanksgiving causes us to abound in our faith in Christ Jesus as Lord, and our walk in Him which is being like Him. Thanksgiving increases the stability of our root system and the strength of that which is above ground (like a deep rooted tree). Thanksgiving even plays a role in the establishing of our faith because when we are truly thankful we will spend more time with the person to whom we are thankful which in this case is our Heavenly Father. With thanksgiving we will abound in faith. The opposite or antonyms of abounding is to be scarce, poor, or lacking. On the other hand synonyms for abounding includes; thriving, flourishing, prospering, proliferating, overflowing, brimming, plentiful, to be rich in, and to be abundant in. Between you and me, I’m not finding it difficult to choose between these. For our part we must have a sound mind, a disciplined mind giving thanks even when we do not ‘feel’ like it. If we are finding things to be scarce, that we are poor in areas of our life, and that we are lacking in areas of life perhaps we should examine our thanksgiving to determine if we are truly thankful and are we expressing that thanksgiving without guile. So, it sounds like it would be really smart to get with the thankful program. If we don’t think we are truly thankful then we need to ask God to help us be truly thankful and we must purpose in our heart choosing to be thankful. This means I chose to think; “I am thankful for X”, “I chose to be thankful for X” and this would be the words of our mouth as well. And if the thoughts come up that we really are not thankful we must chose to cast that thought down and pickup up the thought that we are thankful and say it. We may start off thinking we are a lying dog but God will help us and it will become our reality which is the Father’s reality.
Ephesians 5:19-21 (KJV)
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
The word ‘heart’ in the nineteenth verse is ‘kardia’ which is the entrance to our soul, the area of decision, it is the area where we chose to do or not. We must CHOOSE to speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and to make melody in our heart (mind) unto the Lord. Recall that the number nineteen is the number of faith. Verse twenty (twenty is the number of redemption) goes on to tell us to give thanks for all things to the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My first response to “giving thanks always for all things” was, “you have got to be kidding!?” But He wasn’t then I saw why.
Romans 8:37 (KJV)
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Not only are we well equipped to deal with any and all circumstances with which we are presented but the outcome demonstrates the exceeding superiority of the Kingdom of God and the abundant goodness (glory) of our God. It is an evangelistic tool in the hands of the sons of God. Jesus gave us dominion over the curse by His death and resurrection. He came and destroyed the works of the devil and we can do the very same thing enforcing His victory day in and day out. The devil brings these things to us to steal, kill, and destroy in our lives. He wants to make it appear that that is just the way it is and there is not a difference between the Kingdom of God and the darkness in which he rules. But brother and sister we are very very different, and we need to understand that and operate in that reality. I will pick up right here tomorrow.
By Pastor David R. Wood
