Just Thinking of God’s Great Grace to Us
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30
It’s said, “What a difference a day makes.” It is amazing how things can so greatly change in one day. Last week, I went to a church work day and was very busy until I felt very weak and my legs didn’t want to hold me up any longer. I sat down in a chair for a while and then finally made my way home. By the evening, I could not move around on my own and my son and daughter came and helped put me in the car to get me to the hospital. It turned out to be just an infection that so weakened me, but it changed the course of my life temporarily. The question in my mind was “how in the world did I get to this place?”
How many times have you looked down the corridors of time to try to figure out how you have arrived at the place you are today? Can you see (understand) God’s role in bringing you to the place where you are now? Do you realize that God has a purpose for everything that comes into your life. The temptation is to look back with regrets and even sometimes sense discontentment.
We must not forget that it is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT, they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Our mindset ought always to be on the Lord. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). Notice the phrase “who for the joy that was set before Him.” Jesus had a forward look from the manger to the cross and we also ought to be looking forward. Where will you be ten years from now? What is the Lord doing in your life just now that may give you some clues as to the next ten years? Do you have the joy of the Lord in anticipation of what God is going to do in your life in the future?
Regardless of what the future holds, what a comfort it is to know Who holds the future. There is encouragement knowing that the Lord will meet our needs. My God will supply every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). We all recognize that character is always forged in adversity. And so, with the Apostle Paul, we choose to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4), just as Paul and Silas did in prison (Acts 16).
Concerning our future, some are already with the Lord and more will be with the Lord in Heaven in the days ahead. Our anticipation of the soon return of our Lord ought to cause all of us to constantly be preparing for it. Are any of your plans related to the imminency of the Lord’s coming?
When something takes place in your life unexpectedly, do you find yourself asking the Lord about His plans and purposes for you. Are you able to say that your steps are ordered by the Lord, and you find yourself delighting in His way (Psalm 37:23). Are you able to say, “Thy will be done!”
Bottom Line: I’m thankful and I will praise Him Who knows what is best for me and will always do for us, in us, and through us what is right as we choose to allow Him to be LORD and MASTER of our lives. So, regardless of your current circumstances, join me in being thankful unto Him, and bless His name (Psalm 100:4b).
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:1-4
George Stiekes serves as a Lay Pastor at Bethany Bible Church in Hendersonville, NC. See here for a more complete bio of brother Stiekes extensive ministry. We republish his material by permission.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash