Phillippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will will say, rejoice!
Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God,
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
I have found myself not being thankful this weekend. I know I am really blowing my cover letting you all know that I am a sinner..... desperately in need of the Lord's loving discipline. I was struggling with kids being sick...again. And feeling as though everything was overwhelming... the house, the things needed, more wants then needs for we have been amazed how the Lord provides...., trying to keep up with these ridiculous standards I build for myself that we call goals... I have never set out to do anything w/o a high standard or goal that I must reach. Well in the midst of making my family miserable and the atmosphere in our home rotten the Holy Spirit brought to mind these verses..... so often we memorize verses and the verse right beyond our normal remembering is so key.... vs 9 speaks of to do what we have been taught through God's word and and the God of peace will be with you. Man so simple yet so convicting...
I started by listing off everything I have to be thankful for in the Lord and my family. ( my husband told me to do this seven years ago when we were still "just friends")
When you look at what you are thankful for you suddenly begin rejoicing instead of wallowing.
I am a self admitted wallower..... I just wanted to encourage everyone to be thankful. Excited about who we are in Christ and ready to serve. Even if we don't leave our house.
I am thankful for blogging. It has helped me feel connected thourgh illness and being busy as a mom.
So these our my thoughts... just throwing them out there to the void.......
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Thanksgiving
Posted by Anne at 6:43 AM
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3 comments:
I know what you mean...when we look around at our circumstances, it is so easy to wallow in discouragement. Unless we view everything in the perspective of "whatsoever things are true..." it seems like our circumstances might be the worst anyone has ever gone through! I find it difficult to teach my mind to think the way the Lord wants me to think...but can you imagine how much more joy we would have in the Christian life, if we DID apply those verses everyday? I'm so thankful for how practical the Word of God is... answers to any problem are right there!
Simon is sick too. The *chapel fever* is back again! We're looking forward to Dave's return tonight. I rely on him so much when the kids are sick, so we've missed him a lot.
Miss you too!
Anne, thank you for your frankness! How easy it is to wallow! And, quite frankly I needed to hear exactly what you wrote tonight. I was sifting through blogs and thinking about my shortcomings...how I so often fall short of my goals and expectations. How I fail the people around me because of my own sin. I was wallowing in it...and trying not to but failing miserably! But, you reminded me to be thankful that I don't have to wallow...that I have a Savior who has died for all the stupid things I do, who has given me access to a power that allows me to rise above the wallowing and be productive for HIS glory! We serve an awesome God, Anne, and as we start a new week I hope we can remember that!!
Love you and praying for you!
Thankyou for sharing your heart and soul. The Lord is so gracious to show us the needs and failures of our heart. He alone is able to take the unthankful spirit and cause it to rejoice with thanksgiving.
We each have much to be thankful for. I am thankful for His grace. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.
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