Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 18 & 19

 Day #18: I'm thankful God is merciful.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Psalm 145:8). "The Lord’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed" (Lamentations 3:22).

Mercy is God's compassion on us who were miserable. The modern definition of mercy carries the implication of holding back a deserved punishment (which God did do for us), but the Biblical term, according to Unger's Bible Dictionary means "a form of love determined by the state or condition of its objects. Their state is one of suffering and need, while they may be unworthy or ill-deserving. Mercy is, at once the disposition of love respecting such, and the kindly ministry of love for their relief."

In other words, God saw our suffering and need and came to our rescue with love and grace even though we did not deserve it!



Day #19: I'm thankful God is my Shepherd.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 2

Day #2: I'm thankful that God's gifts are good.

I love the illustration that Jesus gives in Matthew 7:7-11. He asks the parents in his audience to imagine that their children ask them for bread and fish. Would they give their children stones and snakes instead? Of course not! Jesus says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" 

We have a loving Father who delights to hear and answer our prayers with good things. He is not a harsh, uncaring parent who gives us things that won't satisfy! He knows our needs and desires to meet them. He is good! 

I don't think though, that this is a promise that we will always get everything we want from God. In the last few months, I've heard of two different families that had their infants go through emergency surgery and not survive. I'm sure those families asked God to spare their children, but God saw fit to take them. And in that he was still good. Of course, hearing their stories takes me back to when my husband and I were sitting in the hospital waiting room, so emotionally distraught, begging God to protect our two-day-old son during his emergency surgery. God was gracious and he lovingly answered our prayers with "good things." Our son's surgery went perfectly, he recovered easily, and today he is a strong healthy boy. But I wonder, if God had seen fit to take our son, would I have still been able to see that God's gifts are good? Because there are times that his gifts may not seem good at the moment. And he doesn't promise to always show us why the things that don't seem good, are good. But he does promise that his gifts are good.

So as we ask, seek, and knock (verse 7), we need childlike trust in a Father who loves us and will always give us the "good things" we need.

Lessons from a Fish Story

Our pastors have been preaching through the book of Jonah for the last 8 weeks. (They've been excellent messages, and are well worth the listen!) I've learned many things, but the biggest has been a new understanding of Jonah's attitude. I always thought that his attitude went like this: Chapter 1--Jonah didn't want to obey God (because the people of Ninevah were scary!); Chapter 2--Jonah repents of his sin (inside the belly of the fish); Chapter 3--Jonah obeys God (and goes to Ninevah); Chapter 4--Jonah relapses? Chapter 4 always confused me. It seems like Jonah goes from obeying God to being unhappy with God. Didn't he learn anything from the storm and the fish? Now, admittedly, I tend to yo-yo in my obedience as well (sometimes suffering victory and defeat all in the same day!), but the book still always seemed very disjointed to me. Through the last few weeks I've come to a better understanding of the book, and it makes a lot more sense now! Here are two things in particular that I've learned.