For Thought and Meditation - Thursday, November 24

[Pine Baron]

Good morning all, and happy Thanksgiving. I love the idea of "unconditional thanks". Have a safe and blessed day.

Unconditional Thanks
by Greg Laurie on Nov 24, 2022

Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.
—Psalm 106:1

For a time during my childhood, I lived with my grandparents, Mama Stella and Daddy Charles. Every day seemed like Thanksgiving Day at their house because Mama Stella was a great cook. She made everything from scratch.

Of all the things that Mama Stella made, her biscuits were her crowning achievement. And although many in my family have tried to replicate them, no one has been able to.

Now, I never would have thought of eating any of the biscuit ingredients separately. None of them were appealing in and of themselves. But mixed by Mama Stella’s expert hands, those ingredients resulted in the most amazing biscuits.

In the same way, God in His sovereign wisdom has a way of working all things together for good “to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NKJV). We may not fully know what the good or the bad things are until we get to Heaven.

But God can take all the events of our lives—the good things and the so-called bad things—and put them in the oven of adversity. And when it’s all done, we can say, “That’s good!”

It’s easy for us to give thanks for what we perceive as good things, but it’s not so easy to give thanks for what we perceive as bad things. Yet I’ve discovered that the difference between the two isn’t always clear, at least in this side of Heaven.

I know people who wished for certain “good things” to happen in their lives, and when they did, those so-called good things destroyed them. Sometimes they included even success. I also know people who lamented over bad things that happened in their lives, but with the passing of time they realized that those bad things were actually good things.

To give thanks to God, we must first realize as Christians that God is in control of all the circumstances in our lives.

[square butte]

Amen & God Bless

[Wayne Smith]

Wow! I guess Greg hasn't looked at Rom. 8:28 and 8:29 together. 8:29 defines 'good' in 8:28, sometimes I think separating the Greek up into verses has done us a disservice - no one would have confused these statements without the separation. 8:29 states (paraphrase) that it is preordained that we will be made like Christ so he will be the first of many brothers - thus 'all things work together' to make us like Christ, not what I, in my short visioned, earthly life, think is 'good'.

So - I will be made like Christ - there are two absolute statements in 8:29 - it is 'preordained' and that we 'will be' made like Christ. The only unanswered question is - how will that proceed? The more I cooperate with the process the easier my life will be - the more I kick against the pricks the more painful my life will be. The end result will be the same, I will be made like Christ.

[buckwheatpaul]

What a wonderful message...I also thank God for what he does for us that we are not aware of....He truly does work in a mysterious way! Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving one and all!