Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Be Thankful for the Things You No Longer Have to Have

Wednesday - November 25, 2009

Psalm 131 – A Psalm of Humility, Simplicity, Integrity
1 My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

Be Thankful for the Things You No Longer Have to Have

As the song says, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” The surprise is not just in the outward material blessings of the last year. It is also in the times of pain and suffering which seemed to be for no good purpose but turned out to be blessings in disguise. That, too, is the goodness and grace of God.

In the spirit of Psalm 131, we should sit down sometime between now and Thursday and make a list—a very personal, private list—of the things that we have been weaned in the past year. That is, make a list of the things that through suffering and hardship God has taken away from us in the last twelve months. As a result our faith is stronger and deeper and our walk with God means more than it ever did before.
We should list those things we used to think we couldn’t live without but now we know we can. It could be a dream we had for our life that consumed all our energy but God has taken it from us and we have found, “Yes, I can live without that.” It may be a relationship, an idea, something we owned, a personal possession, a promotion or a new job we just had to have, or a new account we set all our hopes on.

Thanksgiving is only two days away. We ought to be the most thankful people on the face of the earth.

My prayer: May our days be marked with humility, simplicity, and integrity. Let us be thankful not only for the things we have but also for the things we no longer have to have. And let us as the people of God hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. Amen

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