In the last two blogs we have been talking about how we can live by faith as a joint heir with Christ. Living from the inheritance He has bought for us on the cross, and which is now ours by faith. We wrote about drawing on our inheritance daily as we thank Him for the new life He has given us ‘the treasure in the jars of clay’, 2 Corinthians 4:7. Thanksgiving also enables us to receive more of our inheritance as the Holy Spirit fills and renews us in His love.
We were looking yesterday at the grace and favour that is ours to draw on, moment by moment, as we walk through the day. We were considering how thanksgiving expresses our faith that the Lord will give us that grace to live in the various challenging situations that each day brings. It’s His grace that enables us to live as He would want us to.
Thanksgiving also brings us into another aspect of faith and that is ‘rest’. I wonder if like me when you are faced with a challenging situation, whether that is lack of time, resources, energy, patience, love, wisdom or any of the things that you are needing in order to live as Jesus would, you find yourself ‘trying harder’ to be, or do, what you feel you should be being or doing!!
I have found that there is a link between thanksgiving and a faith that enables us to manifest the fruit of the Spirit from a place of rest. It is the opposite of trying harder to be what Jesus wants us to be, getting tense and feeling somewhat of a failure.
The two alternatives go like this:-
As the challenge comes, I see my possible lack, (I look at the clay pot and not the treasure). I get tense and try hard and fall short of how I would like to be.
Or, as the challenge comes and I see my lack, I turn to the Lord with thanksgiving that in Him I am, and have, what I need in that situation (I thank Him for the treasure within). I also thank the Holy Spirit that He is my helper and friend, that He will fill me and enable me to release the good fruit that His presence within me produces. My thanksgiving enables me to look at the resources that are mine in Christ and so I relax, I find the ‘rest’ of faith and I receive from the Lord my provider.
In brief I remember it this way:
Either….
I look at myself ……… I try and I get tense!!
Or by giving thanks….
I look at the resources in Him…….. I rest, relax and recieve.
Let us, by giving thanks, turn every day into an adventure in becoming more like Jesus ‘One degree at a time’, 2 Corinthians 3:18. We can then enjoy walking with Him, growing in faith and confidence that His life within us, ‘the treasure’, is growing and showing.
