Smooth Stone #2 is Giving God Thanks. Being grateful is health to your body and health to your relationships between God and between other humans. When you give thanks, you overcome the evil of discontent , envy, jealousy and self pity. Gratefulness is the ancedote for those distructive poisons. Thanking other people and thanking God is an action that repells Satan.
Praising God and Giving Thanks are the quickest way to bring down the giants that are trying to take you captive. These two smooth stones are so highly effective because your enemy will never praise God or give God thanks - so when you do, he flees. Praising and thanking is opposite to Satan's nature so that's why it's so beneficial to you.
Don't wait to thank until you recieve something you deem "thank-worthy". Start immediately to voice what you have or see or even believe to see. Start with phrases like, "Thank you for the sunshine!", "Thank you for shoes on my feet", "Thank you for drive thrus", coffee, good books...anything! Often we just recieve these things and don't thank for them. We are worse off for not giving voice to our gratitude. Giving thanks is the difference between being a consumer instead of a receiver. A consumer takes - takes - takes, but a receiver receives and gives thanks.
Giving thanks changes how you feel (for the better)! One of the reasons giving thanks changes how you feel is that giving thanks repels the opporession of the enemy. Often times our enemy pushes "feeling buttons" that are not truly our feelings, but are intrusions into our world to make us think in wrong ways and go down wrong paths. These wrong paths end in trashed relationships, bitterness, squelched opportunites, walking according to the flesh, etc. These erroneous thoughts and feelings feed our flesh and quench the Holy Spirit's work in the very situations we're hoping will work out well.
The One we should be quenching is not the Holy Spirit, but the kingdom of darkness. Thanksgiving quenches, thwarts and destroys the agenda of that dark kingdom AND makes the way for the good will of God to be accomplished in our situation. The Bible says to give thanks to God for all things for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Many people think you are thanking God for the circumstance and thinking the circumstance is the will of God for you. That's what religion has done to this passage. The TRUTH is that giving thanks is the will of God for you and giving thanks changes you and your response to the circumstances and often the very circumstances themselves.
It is nearly impossible to start saying words of thankfulness without a smile overtaking your face and soon, your disposition. So open your mouth and GIVE THANKS and PRAISE - this sends your enemy packing and brings the joy of the Lord.
This is a great point- "A consumer takes - takes - takes, but a receiver receives and gives thanks"
ReplyDeleteI'll put it to use right now- Thank you for this post!