The wilderness is for my own good so I should be thankful for it.
3 For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4 He holds in His hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. 5 The sea belongs to Him, for He made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, 7 for He is our God. We are the people He watches over, the flock under His care. If only you would listen to His voice today!
8 The LORD says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tested and tried My patience, even though they saw everything I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, 'They are a people whose hearts turn away from Me. They refuse to do what I tell them.' 11 So in My anger I took an oath: 'They will never enter My place of rest.'"
When we think about all of the reasons we have to be thankful, we should go to God and give him praise and worship, if we consider just a fraction of what he has done the praise and worship should be unrestrained.
Maybe that isn't your experience right now, you know he deserves it but you are wondering around in the desert and your feelings are just not there. You are in a situation that you don't want to be thankful for.
Our number one desire here in the United States is to be comfortable, more money, better health, a house full of stuff and we are happy. The only problem with that way of thinking is that it isn't God's number one desire for you.
We like to pray for him to close doors that we shouldn't go through but what if he closed that door to test your faith? Do we really believe that God is in control when things happen?
God's number one desire for you is to make you holy, he is the master gardener that prunes his vine to make it more productive, pruning doesn't feel good but growth usually comes in the most difficult moments.
We are just like God's children in the wilderness, we have been brought out of slavery, we have witnessed unexplained miracles but at the moment we are out in a desert and the last thing we want to do is thank God for this situation.
We need to see God's presence in even the most difficult times and realize that sometimes he strategically puts us where we would never choose to go.
Have you considered the reality that Jesus knew the weather forecast and he still put his disciples in a boat on two different occasions?
Why would God ask Jonah to go start a revival in enemy territory?
Why would faithful men have to make a stand for their beliefs and get thrown into a furnace?
Lord help me to remember that you are in control and that I should not look at the people and circumstances around me and blame them for interrupting my plans to be comfortable. Thank you for loving me enough to die for me and for using any means necessary to help me grow.
When everything is going our way we take prosperity and comfort for granted but when things get tough we realize that we are powerless to control our circumstances. If you begin to see that everything you have and everything you have counted on can disappear in a second then it becomes much harder to take it for granted.1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
A heart of thanks can help you persevere when stress and heartache come upon us. You can focus on the current situation and forget about the past experiences that we have already come through. God brought you through yesterday, last month and last year when you thought things were so bad so why won't he do it again?
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