Thanksgiving

Lots of manna today, a veritable Thanksgiving Feast. I've started reading a book by Matilda Nordtvedt and it's really a remarkable book. I love the way she cites scripture and weaves biblical truth into her book. She's been writing a lot about giving thanks in everything. Not, as some people teach, to be thankful in spite of our circumstances (to find something to be thankful even when life is not treating you well), but rather to be thankful for everything that occurs in our lives. 


How to be thankful for horrible situations, for terrible situations? Her premise is, that everything that comes our way has been approved of by our Father, God. Even the things that Satan devises to tear us down, to shake our faith, have to be permitted by Him before Satan is permitted to afflict us. She says that, if God has permitted it, then He has also changed the purpose of it so that it is not to destroy us but rather to build us up. 


One of the verses that jumped out at me in particular, tonight, was Psalm 71:8 "Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day." Let my mouth be filled with thy praise all the day. All the day ... isn't that amazing? From the time I rise in the morning until the time I lay my head down at night, the psalmist says, my mouth should be filled with praise for God. 

It's a different perspective than what I've been accustomed to holding. It's a complete paradigm shift for me. I've been taught, and I've believed that we are to be thankful at all times. At all times, however, not for all things. To filter everything that happens in my life, to me, through the lens that says, "this is something which God intends for your benefit" is a little mind boggling.


If I really believe that God is for me, and I believe that nothing can happen to me without God permitting it, then it follows (unless my logic is faulty and some of you may be able to correct me), that everything that happens to me is permitted for my benefit. If it's for my benefit, then no matter how painful and how difficult it it ... I need to thank God. What a mind blowing concept ... I think I'm going to have to give this a try.