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Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:4-7
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For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:19-21
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But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:35-36
In the last few days these Scriptures have been brought to my attention, and as I’ve emphasized above, thankfulness or lack thereof jumped off the pages. It struck me like a stone between the eyeballs that to even look out the window without giving thanks is a damnable state. Ungratefulness is one of the first acts of truth suppression rendering us without excuse before the judgement throne.
This is not good news for me. When my kids go to sleep at 8pm, eat their vegetables, or clean up their toys, do I give thanks? Of course not, that’s just the way it should be, right? What about when they are up at 11pm fighting, they’ve eaten a whole bag of marshmallows before dinner, and have turned all my jewelry into an obstacle course? Well now it makes sense to be completely shocked and enraged, don’t you think?
If I was actually in touch with reality (aka the Scriptures), I would realize that 8 sinners, each bent on their own way, cannot possibly get anywhere near what “should be.” What is actually shocking is that the Most High God is kind to the ungrateful and bestows unimaginable peace to those he has enabled to give thanks to him in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Talking Wall 