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Gratitude is a choice

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT)
16 "Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."

Gratitude is a choice. It's an opportunity to properly respond to what we've received in God's grace. It's an opportunity to perform justice to God for what he has either provided or allowed in His all knowing wisdom. Our failure to be grateful demonstrates our lack of faith in the wisdom of His plan and provision ... 

...and our complaints express a direct challenge - questioning His wisdom...

Job 38:1-7 (NLT)
1 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? 3 Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. 5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"

So many times in the now distant past, I myself questioned Father God's wisdom in the things that I saw and experienced in my own troubled life. I couldn't understand why He would allow some things to occur or to continue and consequently held Him not only responsible, but in some cases even had the audacity to hold Him in contempt - as the accused in my own puny judgment and wisdom. I was like a foolish ant challenging the will and intentions of an enormous elephant. Where was the defect in the moments that I judged Him? Was it with Father God or was it with me? The answer of course is immediately obvious to anyone who actually, truly knows Him.

In reality, my own lack of faith in His unlimited wisdom and judgment said far more about me and in truth left Him standing ever righteous and holy - unjustly accused and shamefully, falsely vilified. My limited knowledge and understanding of Him and the sometimes incomprehendable, unlimited expanse of His wisdom left me incapable of seeing the beautiful truth of His work and the molding of my own character. So many things in my limited, myopic view failed to capture the expansive beauty of His dedicated efforts toward my own benefit - much to my own personal shame when my eyes were later opened and the product of His intention was gracefully revealed to my own miniscule understanding.

Matthew 5:45 (NLT)
"In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike."

Like a highly skilled craftsman He was chiseling away and carving - carefully shaping the character of His highly prized and most precious work. Working in the sun and the rain, unholy pieces that serve no purpose other than to detract from the beauty that He holds in His mind's eye are removed and fall away - sometimes painfully. But His focus is always on the final and permanent beauty and joy of His efforts. Who I am now is not who I used to be and the credit and any glory for that isn't mine. It belongs to the very one that I accused of doing me harm and moving unjustly in the things that I witnessed and did not understand. I've since come to recognize that the failure to understand His unlimited vision and the wisdom in His efforts... was and always has been mine.

If we were never challenged by the heat of the sun or the drenching of the rain, if the hand of the Master never touched us to remove the dross, we would remain shapeless and without the beauty that He lovingly admires. It's only by His grace that we don't remain void as we submit to the work of His hand. And for that and so many other things... we need be eternally grateful. 

Whatever pain we might experience amongst the joys of our redemption, only speaks to the eternal beauty that we're becoming under the skill of His hand. So our gratitude even in those moments that try us and may even pain us is not only righteous, but absolutely due Him. To deny Him that, is to defame His work in us and to return the unspeakable and loving glory of His effort with ingratitude.

James 1:2-8 (NLT)
2 "Dear brothers and sisters,a when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.


5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do."


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