New Thoughts: (08/21/22-08/22/22)
As I look to the words in this passage, one thing that strikes me is
that throughout, it is the extent of the commanded action that is
emphasized, not the action itself. That’s not to say that the commanded
actions are less important, or the strength of command reduced. But
it’s extensive, this application. It applies always, non-stop, in
everything. If Paul had simply said to rejoice, pray, and give thanks,
it would be easy enough to comply, or at least be convinced that we
had. Yes, yes. There was that moment when the striving of schedule
closure was done, and I could rejoice because the day had ended, and the
next day would not have the same pressure. I could give thanks that God
had carried me through, or simply that it was through. But praying in
the midst? Who has time?
See, it’s easy to rejoice when things are pleasant, to give thanks to
God for happy providences. But when life comes at you hard, when all
seems to be going to pieces, yet the call remains the same. Rejoice,
and give thanks. And through it all, whether pleasant or hard, pray.
This gets challenging, doesn’t it? I mean, just hear it in the intended
order. Always rejoice. Ceaselessly pray.
In everything, give thanks. Everything? Yes. I just lost my job, and
I should give thanks? Yes. My family died in a transportation
accident, and I should give thanks? Yes. And I’m sure you know that
hymn which resulted from exactly those circumstances, with its
resounding chorus, “It is well, it is well with my
soul.” Yes, even then.
So, with this near-eternal scope in view, what is commanded? We are
called to rejoice. Now, that doesn’t mean we jump up in down with giddy
excitement, regardless of what is happening. But we can be glad
nonetheless, even if the situation is not so happy an occasion. We can
be, as Zhodiates gives the sense, calmly happy. This goes beyond
undisturbed, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t require appearing a bit
unstable in our response to things. It doesn’t require shouts of
ecstasy when the world dumps on you, as it will. It doesn’t require
denying the hurt, or pretending things are other than as they are.
Indeed, what it requires is recognition of deeper things.
Zhodiates observes the connection between this term for rejoicing, and
that for grace; chairete and charis.
I think there is more than a syntactical connection here. There is a
causal connection. It is the recognition that God’s grace is involved.
He Who spoke and it was, He in Whom the whole universe holds together
and has its being has accounted you the apple of His eye, deserving of
the most tender care and protection. That phrase, with its reference to
the pupil, tells us much as to how God perceives us. The pupil is,
after all, quite important to our well-being, isn’t it? It is the
aperture through which light enters, that most important image of God.
It is the organ by which we see and perceive both danger and direction.
And it is, perhaps of all bodily organs, the least protected. It is
soft and relatively exposed. It doesn’t take much to sustain an injury
there, and such injury is not readily repaired. The whole gives us the
sense of something of importance that is exceedingly fragile, and thus
the object of most careful protection. God knows you are but dust, a
fragile thing. But you are important to Him, and these events which He
permits in your life do not come to harm you. They come to benefit you.
It’s the obvious go-to, but why not? Joseph, fleeing from Potiphar’s
house as Potiphar’s wife sought to have relations with him was not in
enjoyable circumstance. Being cast into prison for crimes not committed
could hardly strike one as a proper reward for righteousness. But God
had His reasons, and the end result for Joseph was indeed glorious. And
yet, that end result had little to nothing to do with it. No. The
purpose was far greater than Joseph’s elevation to power. It was the
preserving of life, and more importantly yet, the preserving of that
line which led to Jesus, God’s own Son, born a man among men to save
mankind from its irreconcilable differences with God.
This may be the simplest cause by which to remind ourselves to
rejoice. God has purpose, good, indeed glorious purpose, in all that He
does, all that He ordains, and all that He permits. Even the worst
machinations of the devil in the end serve to bring about His good and
perfect result. So, rejoice. Whatever may be happening in your life,
it is not pointless misery, it is not frivolous amusement for the
heavenly host. It is to a purpose, and that purpose belonging to a good
and perfect God, is most assuredly good and perfect in itself. You
don’t know what may be coming of these circumstances, or how it all
connects. But He does. So, then, even if the present circumstance is
difficult, even as difficult as Joseph all but forgotten in his prison
cell, you and I can go about our days in calm happiness, content in our
Lord. Whether we see it or not, these things are helping us grow. They
are come to shape our character, to render us more mature, nearer to our
Lord.
That nearness is best encouraged by a thriving prayer life. As such,
it is telling, I think, that it is our prayer life that comes next into
view. Ceaselessly pray. Pray incessantly, non-stop. Strong tries to
temper it somewhat, I think, with the idea of praying on every proper
occasion, and that’s fine, but when is the occasion not
proper? What moment of your day is inappropriate to prayer? There are,
I am quite sure, moments of the day that seem less fitting. It may
offend our sense of propriety, for example, to be praying as we go about
our morning ablutions. On the other hand, there are those for whom this
is in fact a time for most urgent prayer. It gets back to that always,
even in hard providences, matter.
But here, it seems to me the problem is almost opposite that of always
rejoicing. With the rejoicing, it’s the pleasant times that lend
themselves to obedience, and the hard times that tend towards neglecting
the command. With prayer, I think it is almost the opposite. Let us
come to the end of our rope, and we shall likely resort to prayer. But
when everything is running smoothly, it doesn’t seem all that needful,
and so we let it go. Oh, we may have our more ritual moments. We’ll
say grace at meal, unless we’re alone and rushed for time. We’ll have
our moments of corporate prayer, perhaps a moment with our spouse or our
children at day’s end. But that’s not what is being instructed here, is
it?
How, one may ask (and reasonably so), am I to pray non-stop? My
education, my employments, my driving, or whatever it is with which I am
involved require my attention. I cannot be giving my duties the mental
concentration they require if I am giving my mind over to prayer. For
all that, if I’m bottled up in my prayer closet all day, where’s the
time to do anything? Of course, your prayer closet is in fact a mobile
device. Wherever you are, that closet is with you. And, with a bit of
trepidation lest it become an excuse for idleness in regard to this
command, I do think of the old Steve Green song. “I
make my life a prayer to you.” There’s something to that. It
is, it would seem, possible to remain in communion with our Lord even as
we go about our daily business. I don’t suppose that means we should be
wandering about bubbling with songs of praise all day, although, if that
can be done without being a distraction and a disturbance to those
around us, why not? For all that, who’s to say what song is a song of
praise, and what song is not? I mean, God assuredly is judge of that,
and will determine what He finds pleasing and what He finds a stench and
an offense. But my instrumentals can be as much an expression of faith,
surely, as the hymns of old, even though no words are spoken.
Think of that Psalm of David. “Day to day pours
forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no
speech. There are no words. Their voice is not heard. Yet, their
line has gone out through all the earth, their utterances to the
farthest reaches” (Ps 19:2-4a).
It’s akin to Paul’s observation that creation itself testifies to the
glory of our God. We have but to look and see with open eyes and
understanding heart.
I was watching a brief video yesterday considering the combination of
what we might call galactic miracles which gave opportunity for
intelligent life to form on this planet, seemingly this one planet in
the whole universe. Things had to be just right. Jupiter had to come
close enough, but not too close. The moon had to be big enough, but not
too big. The distance of our orbit from the sun needed to be within a
narrow range of possibilities. And so on and so on. And all of this
was. How is that? If one works out the odds of even one of these
events, it’s already vanishingly small. Combine the lot, and we’re left
with what amounts to an impossibility. Even given the myriad suns of
myriad galaxies, mere chance can’t account for it. Honestly, mere
chance can’t account for anything, but you hopefully take my point. It
needed something other than random acts of galactic violence to arrive
at humanity.
I could add in the consternation of those astronomers who have been
viewing images coming from the Webb telescope. Here is their theory of
the Big Bang – settled science, as folks like to think these days, even
though science is pretty much never settled. Well, they’ve been working
that theory a long time, and based on that theory, certain things should
be visible as they peer back down the tunnel of time toward the core of
this galaxy of ours. It should look like this, you see? But it
doesn’t! Where is the requisite physical, optical evidence of that Big
Bang? Apparently, it’s not there. There will need to be another
explanation. But then, even the Big Bang did not suffice as explanation
for how all that is came into existence. For even were it proven right,
there remains the moment before, and the question of what caused that
bang. Chase it as far as you like, and eventually you must come to that
which has no cause, no point of origin or causal force beyond itself.
You must come to God.
Let me try and drag that back on topic. All of this grand display of
the universe, into which God has seen fit to allow us to develop the
means to peer, speaks of Him. It prays to Him, you might say, for
prayer is not all about petition, is it? It needn’t be a matter of
asking Him for this or that, nor even of expressing our concerns about
this or that. Sometimes, it’s just glorify God! Sometimes it’s just, “You are amazing!” Indeed, as I prepare these
studies, I have that heading for Doxology, and that’s exactly the idea.
Here is cause to proclaim the wonders of our Lord, for we have come to
His word, to hear from Him, and He has spoken. What does He speak?
Always rejoice, always pray. In everything give thanks.
All of this should lead us to recognize that prayer is not some
religious exercise to be done by rote. It is not some optional
spiritual discipline to which we might apply ourselves or we might not.
Prayer is also not our last resort, get out of trouble free card. It’s
our first resort. It is our lifeblood. If we are feeling spiritually
weak, or lapsing into despondency, considering the previous verses, here
is the first place to look for remedy. It’s the great diagnostic of,
“How’s your prayer life?” I suspect that like me, you would have to
answer, “Not what it should be.” Of course,
however good it is, we could give that answer, and probably feel pretty
pleased with our piety. But the truth is that for most of us, our
prayer life is nowhere near what it should be.
I think of Haydn, at least if my memory is correct, who would pray at
length each morning before turning to the work of composition, and, if
that composition did not positively flow forth from him, would return to
prayer. Or, consider Bach, who would initial so many, if not all his
works with, TGBTG: To God be the glory. I’m working from memory here,
so forgive me if the details are off a bit, but that’s my best
recollection at the moment.
This is prayer unceasing. This is making your life a prayer to God.
In all things remaining actively, consciously aware of the Living God
dwelling within you; in every situation remembering who you are, Who you
represent. As the song says, which we will be singing this morning, “I am who You say I am.” Indeed, little light.
So go forth and shine, be that salt He has called you to be, created you
to be, empowered you to be. Pray that you might represent Him well.
Pray in order that you might remain aware of His majesty throughout your
day. Pray because He is worthy of all praise. Pray because your life
depends on it.
Father, it is scary when I consider just how readily I dispense
with this most needful activity. And I wonder at my stress, at my
frustration. What’s to wonder? I might as well cease drinking water
and wonder why I am thirsty. It’s the same issue. There’s an
inevitable cause and effect. That being the case, I suppose the first
need I might pray for is the need for prayer. Remind me, in my
forgetfulness, Lord. Holy Spirit, stir up in me this desire for more
constant, more immediate communion with You. In the events of my day,
give me eyes to see what You are doing, what You see. Let me see
You. I don’t, at this juncture, ask to see Your face, but let me
notice Your presence, Your involvement, Your glorious majesty. I
could thank You once again for that time of worship last Thursday, for
the songs chosen speaking so tenderly to my exact place of need. That
was, indeed, a day of hard providences, and yet, You were there. You
carried me through, and You tenderly dressed my wounds at day’s end.
Thank You. A thousand times, thank You. And may I have once more
that sense of Your refreshing presence in worship today. Indeed, I
would pray that You so use this poor instrument today that others
might likewise know that refreshing presence. Use me as You will, my
God. And let me be no hindrance.
Always, ceaselessly, in everything. There is the scope of our due
worship of God Who is always, ceaselessly,
everywhere. You will forgive me for not attaching ‘in
everything’, but I’m not keen to dip into anything that smacks
of pantheism, even with so small a grain of truth to it. But Scripture
is clear enough that there is nowhere one could contrive to go where God
would not be. Go to the farthest ends of the earth, He is there.
Descend into Sheol. He is there. Should we, one day, truly develop
into a space-faring species, still, go so far in the universe as you
may, and still, He is there. It is, after all, all of His doing. And
that is the fundamental reality, the basic cause, we might say, for the
commands Paul has given us here.
Always rejoice, for whatever it is you are encountering, it is the
outworking of God’s plan and purpose. Is there suffering in the world?
To be sure, there is. Are times hard? Admittedly. Does it seem like
the darkness is winning of late? From a certain viewpoint, it surely
does. But that viewpoint is not the only viewpoint, nor is it the best
or even proper viewpoint. All is proceeding as God has ordained. In
all these things, the bad right alongside the things we consider good,
God’s glory, God’s majesty, and yes, God’s goodness is being made
manifest. All of this, the bits we like, and the bits we don’t, is
glorifying God, demonstrating His majesty, and pursuant of His good and
perfect will.
Now, if we recognize that all that is and all that happens does so by
the moving of His will, we assuredly have good cause to pray
ceaselessly, don’t we? You know, there’s that aspect to the ancient
religions, that man was seeking some means to control the forces of
nature, things that were and are inherently beyond his control. He saw
the fierceness of storms, knew himself powerless against their
destruction, and so, sought something, someone to whom he could appeal
that was stronger. And these various gods of the ancients, demons in
disguise as we are reminded, latched onto opportunity and claimed that
power, which you could hope to bend to your advantage by the right sort
of worship towards them.
I have to assume there was some grain of truth there, some capacity of
these demonic powers to shift the course of natural events, else how,
really, could any of those ancient religions have taken hold? Who would
follow what was rapidly and clearly shown a total fraud? I mean, it
might take a while, but most folks, I should think, would tend to notice
the snake oil didn’t actually work. All the hand-waiving, and
self-harm, and so on didn’t make the hurricanes cease, didn’t in fact
ensure a good crop or a large family or really, much of anything. You
would think there must have been at least some minimal effect to which
the proponents of these false religions could point and claim success.
But then, even today, one sees plenty of such baseless belief. Consider
those who are turning to rocks and crystals as if they had some inherent
powers to shift your mood or your circumstance. Of course, they do
nothing of the sort, and yet it’s a growth industry. Call it a symptom
of that reality that everybody’s going to serve somebody. Alternately
stated, everybody needs something to worship.
So, here is God, the true Creator and Controller of all that is.
Surely, even if your only motivations to pray are entirely wrapped up in
self-interest, you have found infinite cause to pray to such a one.
What is it that needs shifting? He is able. What is it that brings
suffering? He can remove it. What are the weights that are bearing
down your spirit, your soul? He can lift them. Now, I would be remiss,
were I not to remind, and that, immediately, that prayer is not some
power to bend God to your will. You can assuredly pray for such things
as these, and you can pray with the utmost assurance that God in fact
hears you, and even that God will in fact answer you. What you cannot
allow yourself to suppose is that you, by praying, can bind God to your
desired course. Heaven forbid! First off, God is not so foolish as to
put such power over Himself in any man’s hands. For all that, God being
God, cannot possibly have any such power set over Him. Then, too, our
scope of vision, our depth of wisdom is so miniscule by comparison, that
we should be utter fools to insist on our way, rather than to seek from
Him that which He knows will be to our best good.
Indeed, when we should pray, I think that would serve well to be
foremost in our thinking. God knows what is to our best good. He knows
what we are facing. And, by Scripture’s own testimony, He knows what we
will ask before we even think to formulate the request. Indeed, He
already has the answer in flight before we do so. We don’t pray, then,
as directing God, or drawing His attention to things perhaps He has
missed due to His busy schedule. He’s beyond that. He is already
in the details. He is not, like Elijah taunted the priests of Baal,
asleep or looking elsewhere, such that He missed your call, failed to
take note of your crisis. No. God never sleeps. He has no need of
it. For all that, I’m not entirely sure how the very concept of ‘never’ could even apply to One outside the
slipstream of time. Always is, one suspects, but one, perpetual moment,
entirely present and observable instantly, start to finish, or whatever
terms might describe the bounds of infinity. There can be no missing of
events. There can be no never.
And so, having mentioned prayer, which as I have said, is really the
key component in this set of instructions, Paul gives some thought to
the nature of prayer. “In everything give thanks.”
Everything. It’s an interesting word, this panti
which is thus translated. It takes into account,
simultaneously, the totality of what is, everything as a whole, and each
individual component of that whole. It considers, as Zhodiates writes,
“all things individually and in their totality.”
And that is exactly where we find God intimately involved, in all things
individually, down to the minutest detail, and in the totality of
everything, in the grand design, the grand scheme of things. One has
but to consider the chain of events that leads from Adam to Jesus to you
to see both ends of that scale. From before the beginning, we are told,
God purposed your salvation. It was already decided. Your security is
that secure. And He, having begun this good work,
even before there was a Creation in which that work could transpire, is
faithful to complete it. After all, as I have pursued many a time, He
sees the end from the beginning. It’s right back to that timeless
reality in which He dwells. Nothing escapes His notice and His
attention. Nothing happens by chance. Chance, as R.C. used to remind
us often, has no power. It cannot cause. The best it can manage is to
describe our perception of what has come to pass, and in so doing, gives
clear evidence of the limited nature of our powers of perception and
thought. More than you can think to ask, more than you can imagine such
that you might think to ask, this God has done, is
doing, shall do, and that, without the separation of time to bother Him.
So, give thanks for everything. Give thanks for the blessings you
perceive as blessings, yes. Give thanks, as well, for the blessings you
perceive as trials. The worst days of your life come only as necessary
ingredients of the best. They are training you up. They are turning
you back to God. But, my goodness! Don’t wallow in sorrow. Yes, we
all know sorrow for a night. But to seek that out and dwell on it is
unhealthy. It leads to that very ‘small-souled’
faintheartedness of the previous verse. These are the sorts of mental
focus which will only produce in us despair, even if we are assiduously
reminding ourselves that God is in it. If our mindset is stuck on
reviewing the myriad maladies of life in this fallen land, we become
dour, and worse than dour. We become weeping sores of emotional hurt.
Where, then, is that rejoicing to which we are commanded? You cannot
bring yourself to rejoice if your attention is fixated on the ills. You
must learn to look beyond, to the God Who Is, and to what He is doing.
We have consistent reminder. There is the old favorite. “God
causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to
those who are called according to His purpose” (Ro
8:28). It begins with the basic, foundational truth of
reality. “God causes all things.” Man, in
his hubris, wishes to believe he does so. He looks around and boasts,
look at what I have built, what I have created. We read that China,
facing a drought (as is much of the world at present, and all of it,
still set on that truth from Romans), thinks to
counter God’s purposes with chemicals. Men think to counter God’s
measure of their days by similar means. But man is not in control,
however much he tries. God is.
There is the reminder already considered, that He purposed your
salvation, you who are called according to His purpose, before the
beginning. Perhaps we could think of Paul’s declaration to Corinth,
that the wisdom he taught was that, ‘which God
predestined before the ages to our glory’ (1Co
2:7). But what I really had in mind is this. “He
chose us in Him [in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph
1:4-6). He predestined this adoption of ours, as that passage
proceeds to remind us, through Jesus Christ to
Himself, ‘according to the kind intention
of His will, to the praise of His glory, which He freely bestowed on
us in the Beloved’. This is your present tense. This is your
current status. And this isn’t Facebook. Your status is not subject to
change. Not because you’re such a hot ticket, and so assiduously
pursuing obedience to His every command, no. But, “He
who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ
Jesus” (Php 1:6). He will see it
done. Indeed, He already has. He saw the end from the beginning, and
still does.
So, here is your final command. Be grateful, and express it. If your
prayers are all petition all the time, something’s gone wrong. I cannot
but suspect that you have indeed reimagined God as some genie you can
cajole into favoring your pleasures. No. Even in the difficulties of
life, be grateful, and express it. I know I turn to Joseph’s example
fairly often, but then, why do you suppose so much of Genesis is
occupied with telling us of his example? Tossed into prison, he didn’t
fall to complaining that God had failed him. For all that, how had he
come to be in such a place as would permit of such an imprisonment? His
own brothers had come near to murdering him, and had instead sold him
into slavery. And you think you’ve got family issues. But neither of
these had him complaining to God, and they certainly didn’t have him
reviling or rejecting the God he had known from his youth. Far from
it. Whatever his circumstance, he set himself to be the best model of
godliness he could. If he must be a slave, he would be one that served
as unto his God. If he must be imprisoned, then he would do so in a
fashion that could only bring recognition of his honorable nature. And
in it all, whether things were going well for him, as they later would,
or whether they were hard indeed, as they were in that prison cell, he
gave thanks to God, recognizing God’s will even in these hard
providences.
That brings me around to the question I find myself asking about this
passage. It closes with this: “For this is God’s
will for you in Christ Jesus,” and I find myself wondering
whether that ‘this’ is referring specifically
to the response of thanksgiving, or to the threefold command to rejoice,
pray, and give thanks, all without filtering based on
circumstance, all in recognition of the fullness of who God Is. And as
I look at it, I’m not sure there’s really a distinction to be made. I
have, I think, shown how rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving connect.
They have this central connective tissue of recognizing God for Who He
Is.
For all things, individually and in their totality, then, be thankful,
knowing that God has thus ordained events to fall out, and that He does
so with an eye to your best good. For all things, individually and in
their totality, pray to God, knowing that He is the ultimate source, the
ultimate cause, and knowing that what He purposes, no man, by might, by
thought, nor even by pleading, can alter. So, pray not as manipulating
God, but as recognizing Him, knowing His Fatherly care and concern for
you. Pray, I think, as much to keep soul and spirit reminded of Whose
you are, as having any power to shift God’s plans. I’m honestly not
sure where to lay the line here. Moses certainly prayed for things to
turn out differently than God had indicated, and God did so cause events
to turn out differently, seemingly in response to that prayer. The same
could be said of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. We could pretty much
choose the hero and find the same thing. But did prayer alter God’s
course, or did God’s course induce the prayer? That’s a harder question
to answer. Whatever the case, we are commanded to pray, and so we ought
to do. We do so, if we are wise, with a clear understanding that God
will answer, and in answering will do so according to His perfect
lights, and not in strict compliance with our expressed wishes. We do
so, fully mindful that God is in control, and not us.
And we give thanks. Whether the answer comes as per our express
desire, or whether it comes in surprising fashion, we give thanks.
Whether the road proves level and smooth, or whether it is stiff effort
to make any progress whatsoever, we give thanks. We give thanks because
however it is that things are proceeding, it is God’s will that is
working out. We give thanks because it is God’s good pleasure. It is
God’s good pleasure, and let me emphasize the good,
that these things transpire as they do. It is God’s good pleasure that
His children, who know Him to be a loving Father, give thanks to Him for
what can only be good and perfect gifts.
I left myself a note here, to recall the heading I gave to this
section. Honor God. That’s what this comes down to. “This
is God’s will for you.” We have this distinction that arises
between the words Greek provides for will. There is that will which is
nearer decree, the power of which is found in its application to the
governing council in Greece. It is deliberative and determinative. It
decides and declares what shall be done. But then there is the sort of
will we have here, the thelema, the effect
of choice. It expresses desire, good pleasure, and it is here
expressing God’s good pleasure. These are the things that please God.
Would not you, His sons and daughters, seeking to be like Him, seeking
to express gratitude for that adoption into His family which He has
purposed and brought to pass, wish to be doing what is pleasing to Him?
Look. This isn’t about earning status. It’s certainly not about
earning salvation. How shall you earn what is already your birthright?
Indeed, remembering Anselm’s teaching, how could you hope to repay such
an infinite debt as you owed for your sins against an infinite God? No,
but these things are the outflow of that love which He has poured out in
and upon us. He has done, therefore it is our desire to do. These are
the things He is pleased to do Himself, and therefore we, who would give
Him pleasure in response to His love, set ourselves to do them. We do
so haltingly, with many a failure and omission. But we seek to live in
the manner here described: calmly happy, praying always, and thankful
for God’s loving possession of us, whatever may be happening at
present. You are the apple of His eye! I know I’ve mentioned that
already, but it bears repeating. We need to know this. We need to have
internalized this, made it the very warp and weave of the fabric of our
being. His care for you is both tender and complete. And nothing – NOTHING
– can separate you from His love. There is nothing for you
that needs doing but that you should honor God as He is, recognize Him
as He is, acknowledge Him as He is, love Him as He is.
Are times hard? Rejoice! God has it. Indeed, God ordained it. It is
for your good. Are you dealing with challenging circumstances? Pray!
He will hear, and He has already answered. Pray, then, that you might
perceive that answer for what it is, and find further cause to rejoice.
What’s going on in your world today? It doesn’t matter. Give thanks to
God. He is working all things according to His good purpose, and that
assuredly means that they will prove to be for your good, you who are
called in accordance with His purpose. Does that guarantee the
salvation of all whom you count dear? Not necessarily. It might, and
there’s certainly no reason to stop praying that it might be so. But
come what may, God is good, and it is His decision to make. For your
part, insomuch as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. And
indeed, be at peace with God. Give thanks, with a grateful heart, to
the Holy One, Who has given Jesus Christ, His Son. Let the weak say, “I am strong.” Let the poor say, “I
am weak.” And why? Because of what the Lord has done for us.
For us. We are His. He has called us by name. He
has taken us in hand. And nothing, NOTHING can
snatch us away from Him. If nothing else, there is ultimate and eternal
cause to give thanks.
Father, indeed, You do marvelously, and even if this salvation
which You have brought to pass were the only gift we had from Your
hand, yet it would be infinite cause for thanks. But You have done so
much more, more than we could think or ask, more, certainly, than we
could suppose we deserve. Indeed, we deserve nothing but Your wrath,
yet You have, of Your own good pleasure, decided to make us friends
and more. You have decided to make us family. Thank You! A thousand
times, thank You. More still than that! What is there that You have
withheld from Your children? What need have You ever left
unanswered? I look, and like so many before me, I can find nothing,
nothing You have omitted, nothing You have neglected. Indeed, the
lines fall to me in pleasant places, and even did they not, yet I
should have You, and the promise of an eternity spent with You. Yet,
I should have treasures stored in heaven, away from all possibility of
loss, awaiting my arrival. How shall I complain? How is it that I
do? God! Help me in this, for that is assuredly inappropriate, given
Who You are, and who I am in You. Give me a heart to rejoice in all
things. Teach me, as You taught Paul, to be satisfied in every
circumstance, knowing that You are in every circumstance, molding and
shaping all things such that they will in turn mold and shape me more
nearly like Your intended image. Thank You. I know You shall answer,
and that You shall answer according to Your own good and perfect
will. And so, I can find rest in You, even amidst the turmoil of
daily life. It is well with my soul.
