Thanksgiving and Praise

A short "ah-ha" moment below:

Psalm 18:46 The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. 47 It is God who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me; 48 He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man. 49 Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name. (NKJV)

We see here and in many places in Psalms that David is thankful and full of praise to God who delivered him from the hands of his enemies, from the Gentiles etc.
For us, yes we have salvation, but we too must be thankful and mindful how He has set us free from the curses of the world. In the spiritual realm, we have been set free and are victorious, the head not the tail. The victory we have includes victory over all curses, including

- sicknesses and diseases
- poverty
- persecution
- evil of every kind

Does this mean we do not get affected by these? No - in fact the Lord Himself said

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (NKJV)
(boldfaces mine)

The higher truth that we give thanks and are full of praise for is that He has overcome the world on our behalf. For this, we must be mindful of and we give thanks and praise to Him for it.

We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Let's thank and praise Him in all our tribulations in this world, not for them, for He has overcome them! It is in this context that James mentions:

James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (NKJV)

Note that trials test our faith, not our patience.  In each trial we have the choice of believing which is true, the reality we perceive with our 5 senses ("In the world you will have tribulation") or God's promise ("but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world").    When we put our faith in Jesus and His Word, we develop patience.

I pray this short, simple sharing blesses you!

The Man with a Hole in His Heart

This might come as a surprise but each of us are born with a hole in our hearts. I'm not talking about a medical condition here, though.  Many people fill this hole with sundry various things, but let's have a look at someone in the Gospels who filled his with the right stuff.

Luke 19: 1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (NKJV)

We see in this story the kind of people that catch the Lord's eyes.

Zacchaeus should have by all natural reasoning been a man who was very content - he was very rich from being a chief tax collector - he took commissions and possibly kickbacks from his "downline" tax collectors. Yet this man had a longing for the truth.  He knew there was much more to life than what he had.  When truth came in the form of Jesus, he must have already heard some things about Him, to be so enthusiastic. Zacchaeus the seeker met Jesus the Truth that day.

All Zacchaeus wanted was to catch a glimpse of Jesus, so much so that he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed up a tree. Quite an undignified thing for a rich man like him to do, we would think. All that to see and hear the man Jesus.

This is what catches the Lord's eye. Not how good we are, not how much knowledge we have, but a plain simple hunger for the truth, and a recognition of it when it came.

We read on to see how after hosting Jesus in his home, he pledged to give away half his wealth, and pay back fourfold anything he might have gotten through dishonest means. This result in the story is what many would perhaps take as a formula - that if we love God, we should give. We see here that the giving did not come first. Love came first. We love for He first loved us (1 John 4:19). After he had received Jesus joyfully, such love touched his heart that it changed his priorities on an instant. Contrast this with the story of the rich young ruler (Matt 19:16-22) who thought he could "do" his way into the Kingdom, but would not walk away from his wealth. You see, if his heart was right, that last part of walking away from his wealth would have been easy and voluntary, like Mr. Zacchaeus here. Again, put this alongside the parables which Jesus told about the Kingdom of Heaven being like treasure in a field (see "Dug Up Any Treasure Lately?"). Zacchaeus did not stumble upon the treasure. Had he been satisfied with his wealth and not been hungry to fill that hole in his heart (refer to what Jesus told of in the Parable of the Rich Fool), he would have missed Jesus. He was a digger, one who sought and when he found the truth, selling all else for it was no issue.

This is the same for the early Christians that we see in Acts 4:32 - they shared all they had. They each first and foremost had a taste of the Living God, and a healthy walk with HIm.  They were all fighting on the same side and had their minds stayed on the things above (see what Paul said in  Col 3:2), not the things of this world. Sharing is often a result of having a much lower priority for the things of this world.  It isn't a formula for Christians - it is a by-product of having found the truth and having a true relationship with the Lord. No set of creeds could make a group of people behave the way they did; only a true relationship with the One who Loves can.

There is not a single man of God from the Bible I can mention who did not have a longing for this hole to be filled. None of these people were perfect, but they all had the same trait. From Noah to Abraham, Jacob to David, from Peter to Paul to every other disciple, they each knew they had that hole in their hearts and all had it fulfilled by Jesus and His love.

The Lord said 

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (NKJV)

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NKJV)

Luke 11:9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (NKJV)

He knows we have that hole and is waiting for us to realize it.  Being the gentleman He is, He won't force us, but we must seek Him.  And the filling isn't a one-time thing:  the more you taste of the Lord, the more of Him you will desire.

Let's be aware of that hole and seek the Lord to start filling it today.

Be blessed!

Chris