Series: Give Thanks
Psalm 86:12-13 ESV
James 5:16b NCB
Sometimes being thankful isn’t a matter of being saved from a bus coming toward you sideways. Being thankful is a state of mind.
It’s a way of looking at life.
I’ve known people who grumble about pretty much everything and I’ve known people who look for a way to find the good from every circumstance. I tend to believe being thankful is a choice.
It seems to me that thanking God daily for the goodness we encounter is a blessing that keeps on giving.
Psalm 86:12-13 says, “I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”
Giving thanks to God for His love is something we can do every minute of every day. That’s because God loves us every second, every minute, every hour, and every day. It’s hard for us to imagine that kind of complete love so, by faith we embrace it.
In other words because scripture is true and does not lie, we can believe God loves us because Psalm 86,12-13 tells us God loves us. We must also note that this short passage also promises us that God delivers us from the depths of Sheol.
How do we believe it?
It’s by faith.
Now books and volumes of books have been written about faith and while it is a bit of an enigma, it doesn’t have to be.
When I was a child, even a young child I was told by many people that Jesus loves me. I sang a song “Jesus Loves Me” frequently. I read in my Bible Story book that Jesus Loves Me. I knew Jesus was a man but he was God’s Son who came to earth a long time ago and he healed many people.
People who loved me and were kind to me told me that Jesus loves me and I believed them.
I knew Jesus especially loved children because they said so.
I did not have any doubt that Jesus loved me.
As a parent I told my children Jesus Loves them.
As a grandparent I told my grandchildren Jesus loves them.
Believing that Jesus loves me was not a complex matter for me.
But consider a child who was not told that Jesus loves them when they are young. That child grew up in a harsh world. They were not given a Bible. No one ever read the Bible to them or took them to church.
So, as an adult how can that person believe that Jesus loves them?
Honestly I have met people and I knew it would take a major miracle for them to believe that Jesus loves them.
Helping that person to believe as an adult that Jesus loves them will take a great deal of convincing.
That person cannot believe as an adult because they were not given love as a child.
Loving someone who has never known about the love of God can be difficult, but praying for them instead of pushing them puts the matter into God’s hands.
So what if every person who believes Jesus loves them were to pray for the children who are not being told that Jesus loves them prayed every day for the children?
Or even by breaking it down, what if every person named Jim prayed for every child on the planet named Jim (in every language) every day that they would know that Jesus loves them. Some might say that’s a crazy idea and it’s too broad, but I disagree. As I read scripture, if we pray and believe God will answer.
It also needs to be clear that by praying that prayer, you would be believing that the Spirit will act on your behalf to answer your prayer.
Also understand I am not saying if God opens the door for you to tell others that Jesus Loves them you do not need to do it. If God opens that door, then yes tell others Jesus loves them, but scripture tells us in James 5:n16, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Every day throughout the day you can pray that the Spirit will be actively at work helping others believe that God loves them (depending on your specific prayer).
While you may or may not see the fruit of your prayers, by faith you can believe that God is actively answering your prayers.
If that prayer seems too broad for you to pray, choose a specific focus group to pray for. Say, if you have neighbors who don’t know that Jesus loves them, pray that they will come to know they are loved by Jesus.
Then believe.
I tend to think believing is a little like the half empty, half full principle of life. If you believe the glass is half empty you will see it as half empty.
But, if you believe the glass is half full, you will see it as half full.
I’ve always been a half full kind of person. I choose to see it as half full.
Spiritual Practice: Choose a group to pray for
Pray every day that those people will come to know that Jesus loves them. Then believe God is sending the Spirit around the globe to reach those people.
In God, Deborah
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