Still Thankful?
Well we are over half way through with January, 2019. The Thanksgiving season has gone, the Christmas season has gone, the New Year has come and gone – are you still thankful? We give a lot of thanksgiving and praise for these seasons – saying how grateful we are for life and for our families and our jobs and our… Well, as I said are you still thankful?
Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. Philippians 2;14-16 (MSG)
Are we thankful, or do our words and our attitudes betray us? Are we joyfully going to work, glad to make it safely even though traffic was horrendous? Are we still grateful for our job, even when our co-workers are not? Are we praising God for our families, even though our teenagers are being teenagers? Are we living the gospel that we should be sharing? Are we a "living epistle, known and read of men"?
Paul wanted to be proud of the Philippians that he labored with. We aim to make our leaders proud of us, showing our "A" face at church. How much more should we aim to make our Heavenly Father who sees us 24/7 proud, by every day being thankful, walking without complaint, so that:
This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar—to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. Yes, we who are living are always being exposed to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in our mortal lives. 2Corinthians 4:10 (PHILLIPS)
Maria