So, I haven't had a very good weekend - my tires get ripped off and we lose the football game. However, I have some positive thoughts from the weekend. I thought I'd share.
"always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:20 - this is the verse from the sermon this morning.
The second result of the spirit filled life is thankfulness toward the Father - a thankfulness that flows out of a full heart.
Give thanks for everything. Here's the twist that hit me this morning: not only for the good things (although those are included), not only for the things I wanted or needed (although those are included as well), but for everything. Let me say that again: for EVERYTHING. So, that includes things that I don't want to have happen.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job 1:21.
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor...O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:3-6, 9.
I really had things put in perspective this morning during the service. Ronnie talked about how we gripe and complain, revealing our prideful carnal natures because it reveals our belief that we deserve more than we have been given. It shows how we disbelieve the truths about God - especially the truth that God provides everything that we need: "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). Not to mention the fact that what we deserve is hell (as Ronnie succinctly put it). So, I was thinking about it - obviously I should be thankful that, in the griefs and pains in life (that are not to be trivialized, they really do hurt), that infinitely small speck of hell is the only part of hell I will ever have to experience. If that thought doesn't make your heart overflow with thankfulness to the Father, and you are a Christian, we need to check for a pulse :).
At any rate, the weekend is over, school is back in session tomorrow for three days (woo hoo!), so this week should be great! Hope everyone else has as good of a week as I hope to (although, I guess I ought to start my outlines this week - blech).
Oh, I have one more fun story (well, fun in hindsight): I took my car in to get the tires aligned (unfortunately, something I found out this weekend is that tire places do not deliver, so we had to go get the tires and bring them back and put them on the car) yesterday morning. So, they took care of my car, and I went into the tire place to pay, and they told me that one of the trailing arms was bent, preventing them from aligning one of the tires (apparently when the kind thieves left my car up on someone else's rims, they bent it (if you look at the picture on my earlier post of just the tire, you can see the bent trailing arm - I'm assuming everyone out there knows what that is - I had no idea until yesterday)). The guy helping me (not the same guy as Friday, so he didn't know why I had bought new tires) told me all this, and I asked in a rather small voice how much it was going to cost. When he told me, I guess the magnitude of what happened hit me, and I almost started crying. Well, the poor guy got this look on his face that said: "Oh my goodness, there's a girl in the store who is about to lose it, what am I going to do?" At the time, it wasn't that funny, but in retrospect, it was really hilarious. Here I am, thinking about my tires and cost and everything, and this poor guy is trying to help me. I felt really sorry for him. Okay, that's all I've got - have a great Monday!
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