Latest / The Daily Word / May 16 – In Everything Give Thanks
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good wee hours of the night. Whenever you are joining us, welcome to the daily word podcast from leg short Christian fellowship. My name is Corey. It's my privilege to pastor our Kataba campus. And I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another episode where we're going to be doing a devotion from the new Testament portion of our life journal Bible reading plan that we're joining in together on as a church. as May the 16th so our reading came from 1st Thessalonians 5 and what stood out to me today wasn't something new but it was a reminder of something the Lord has brought me to time and time and time again and and I just want to say before we jump into it that that's not necessarily a bad thing like sometimes often the Lord wants to speak something new he wants to bring something alive to us out of scripture that we've never seen before That's awesome. But then there are other times when the Lord just wants us to remember what he's already spoken. And this is something the Lord does, like he instituted Passover for the Israelites in the Old Testament that they would remember, have a set remembrance period for the Lord delivering them out of Egypt. And we saw Jesus establish communion, one of the purposes of which is to remember Jesus' sacrifice. So there's nothing wrong with the Lord. Reminding you of a truth. He's given you before that way you're it's just fresh on your heart That's that's something he does and that's beautiful. So today I was reminded of what he's spoken to me before Specifically out of verse 18, but I'm gonna read verses 16 through 18 cuz it's all one sentence Reading out of the New King James rejoice always pray without ceasing everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you so we can see those three different things rejoicing always praying without ceasing giving the Lord thanks and everything those are actually God's part of God's will for us that's he desires his will for us is for us to do those things we spend a lot of time praying for the Lord wanting to know his will for our life well well well this is it like Like this is the general will of God for our lives. So we should, we should take these things to heart. ⁓ rejoice always, we should always be filled with joy that the Lord makes available to us rejoicing on what he has done. Praying without ceasing. This is something pastor Gill has taught us on very well that that says it mean to always be praying. That's kind of difficult, if not impossible. But we should always just be one step away from re-engaging an ongoing conversation with the Lord. And we're always in the middle of something that we're talking. We're always holding an open dialogue with the Lord. Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks. Now that's, that's the meat of, what the Lord reminded me about today. whenever I look at this and whenever I talk about this, the first thing I always want to point out is that, ⁓ the apostle Paul wrote in everything, give thanks, not for everything. Give thanks. ⁓ ⁓ we don't necessarily give the Lord thanks for things he didn't bring into lives. We don't thank him for, for when we run into the results of sin, whether that be our sin or the results of someone else's sin, we don't thank him necessarily when we run into affliction. What we talked about last time I was on from Thursday, Thessalonians one affliction. Remember Genesis three thorns and thistles like the, like the Lord didn't cause any of that. So we're not necessarily thanking him. The hard things that happen in our life, but we can always find reason to give him Thanks in those things as we're in them we can find something to thank him for I remember when When Megan and I were trying to start a family if you if you don't know our story Megan and I went through five years of infertility and that's five years of trying to start a family and having heartbreak month after month after month after month. And I remember lots of times throughout that journey of infertility coming to the Lord and just being broken, just shattered in my heart and crying out to him, weeping and remembering that despite the fact I was in pain now, that it was his will for me to still bring him thanks. even while I was in pain. So I would thank him. I would thank him that he was a faithful God and that one day I knew he was going to answer my prayers. One day I knew he was going to walk us into starting a family. ⁓ And that's one of the things I would think of for. There's always so many things we can think of for. He's gracious. He's beautiful. He's wonderful. He's allowing me to breathe right now. There's so much to thank God for. ⁓ but in that pain, I would, I would thank him. And then, ⁓ Megan and I, we started beginning pursuing adoption, which the Lord laid on our hearts. And, we were placed with just the most amazing, beautiful girl that we took home to be our daughter. And it was so easy to thank God for that little girl. We were so thankful that after all these years, we were finally able to be parents. We were finally able to have this desire of our heart met and we were so thankful. But, ⁓ after about four weeks, we found out that, ⁓ that there had been some mistruths or misrepresentations, ⁓ about both parents being on board. with this adoption and we found out that that that our daughter's biological father ⁓ wanted her and would not sign consent forms for adoption. So after four weeks of parenting this daughter who had been told when we left the hospital, we were basically told everything's going to be fine. Like he's going to consent and then finding out all that was a lie and that we had to give up our daughter and ⁓ boy talk about a heartbreak the deepest we've ever experienced and suddenly i'm back in that place of being heartbroken being shattered remembering ⁓ the lord taken me through this so many times that it's still his will for me to thank him Thanks for his goodness. Thanks for the privilege of parenting her for the time we had her. Thanks for what he was going to do in her life and in our lives. ⁓ And ⁓ I mean, we don't have time to get into the rest of journey. you know us, you know that we have a beautiful daughter named Brooklyn, ⁓ that was also ⁓ came into our life through adoption and, Megan's pregnant. ⁓ that's absolutely beautiful. The Lord truly has answered all those prayers that we ever prayed. And, and I was, I'm, I'm able to sit and enjoy these blessings now knowing that I was thankful for them before they ever came. But there's a certain power that, that bringing the Lord thanks in the middle of that brokenness. didn't fix. any of the problems. didn't make the pain go away, but it did give me something to hold on to and it did make it navigable. It made it possible. It helped to make the pain bearable as I was going through incredibly hard things. And in the future, I know that when your back is up against the wall, you give him thanks. When everything's going great, And you have no worries, no cares. You give him thanks. He is worthy of thanks in every situation that we live because he is a beautiful God and he is faithful to complete the good work that he began in our lives. is faithful to answer every promise that he has given us. So application, what are you thinking the Lord for today? Where are you in life and what can you find to thank him for? Even if your back is against the wall, even if you're pressed, even if you're crushed, even if you're hurting, what is there to be thankful for? Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you truly are miraculous, beautiful, wonderful God. You bring us and you take our morning, you turn it into dancing, you fulfill the promises you made. You do what you said you're going to do. You are miraculous. You are beautiful. And there is so much that you are worthy of our gratitude for. am so thankful to have breath, to be able to use that breath to bless your people right now as I'm recording into this microphone. So thankful for you. I thank you for your people that are listening. I pray that you would help them to see ⁓ if they're in a place where they're in so much pain, they don't know what to be thankful for. I pray that you would show them what to thank you for. Help it to be easy, Jesus. I thank you for getting us all through the dark and hard seasons into the beautiful seasons again. Winter doesn't last forever. I'm so thankful Lord. that there's a spring for all of us. praise you and we thank you for that spring right now. In the name of Jesus, amen.