{"id":1918,"date":"2017-06-04T14:25:23","date_gmt":"2017-06-04T04:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2018-02-24T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T11:16:12","slug":"a-life-of-thankfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/?p=1918","title":{"rendered":"A life of thankfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Church bulletin<\/p>\n

James 1:17, <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Is it possible that the generosity of God works against Him? The more He gives the more we expect and take for granted. The greater His grace to all men the less we feel blessed. The spoilt child becomes greedy and has a \u201cmelt-down\u201d when something interrupts the supply of perpetual goodies. I suspect that many Christians are little different to spoilt children. Daily provision isn\u2019t a gift, it is a right. <\/span><\/p>\n

We all know that we should be thankful for food, houses, clothing, family, friends, health, money, sunshine, rain, peace, etc. but how many of us really are. Beyond giving lip service, how many of us are genuinely thankful and humbled by God\u2019s kindness? How many of us \u201cspit the dummy\u201d when challenges come our way and we forget the manifold goodness of God poured out day by day? It\u2019s a question that is not so much answered with a verbal response, but in terms of how we live. The thankful person lives thankfully. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Thankful people are joyful people: they see their lives in terms of how much they have, not what they don\u2019t have. They still shed tears, but they don\u2019t exist in a spirit of self-pity and complaining.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Thankful people are generous people: having received much they want to give much; they recognise that everything they own is a gift. God has given to them that they might give to others.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Thankful people are forgiving people: knowing the great debt they owe they cannot unnecessarily hold the sins of others against them. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Thankful people are worshipful people: they want to give to God the glory due His name for all that He has done and continues to do. Serving and obeying God isn\u2019t an encumbrance it is a privilege.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps if we were more thankful we would see a great deal more Godliness and spiritual fruit in our lives and in the church.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Church bulletin James 1:17, \u201cEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/2642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sdreformedbaptist.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}