Spontaneous Thanksgiving to God
in Every Situation, Stimulates Spiritual Growth
By Maurice E. Wagner, Th.M.,Ph.D.
Thanksgiving seems to be spoken less and less in our society. This is something of which a Christian should be aware, It is powerful in changing anger into peace when it is God focused.
A simple transaction takes place when we are truly thankful for a gift. We take possession of whatever the give may be when we express thanksgiving. The gift is ours; it no longer belongs to the giver. The giver wanted us to have the token of love, so our thanks is a way of returning the love gesture.
We are instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to be grateful to God in everything. When we can be thankful to God for the pleasant things, that ‘s easy. But to be thankful for the trying, the painful, the difficult, is not so easy. Being thankful for our hardships means that we take the hardship as a developmental exercise in our companionship with the living God. As an athlete puts his body under extreme stress for development, we take our stressful time as a way of growing spiritually to become more useful to God as an adult spiritually.
These studies should be very helpful to those who study them to become more fulfilled in their Christian life whether or not they can measure their own spiritual growth.
in Every Situation, Stimulates Spiritual Growth
By Maurice E. Wagner, Th.M.,Ph.D.
Thanksgiving seems to be spoken less and less in our society. This is something of which a Christian should be aware, It is powerful in changing anger into peace when it is God focused.
A simple transaction takes place when we are truly thankful for a gift. We take possession of whatever the give may be when we express thanksgiving. The gift is ours; it no longer belongs to the giver. The giver wanted us to have the token of love, so our thanks is a way of returning the love gesture.
We are instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to be grateful to God in everything. When we can be thankful to God for the pleasant things, that ‘s easy. But to be thankful for the trying, the painful, the difficult, is not so easy. Being thankful for our hardships means that we take the hardship as a developmental exercise in our companionship with the living God. As an athlete puts his body under extreme stress for development, we take our stressful time as a way of growing spiritually to become more useful to God as an adult spiritually.
These studies should be very helpful to those who study them to become more fulfilled in their Christian life whether or not they can measure their own spiritual growth.
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