Sunday, August 2, 2015

A Methodist Gives Thanks

•Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
On Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper
Mark #3 of 5, A Methodist Gives Thanks
with 1 Thessalonians 5:18
“Give thanks in every situation
because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Current series on Five Marks of a Methodist by Steve Harper, based on the teachings of John Wesley.
Really, Five Marks of a Disciple.
“When the lights are on, the king is in the castle.”
Five indications that God is king of your castle.
A Methodist Loves God (receives God’s love)
A Methodist Rejoices in God.
•A Methodist Gives Thanks.
Consider this little verse that says so much: 1 Thess 5:18
“Give thanks in every situation
because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Give thanks… 
...in every situation… 
...because this is God’s will for you.
EVERY SITUATION.
Author Steve Harper points out John Wesley’s words:
“Good is the will of the Lord.”
But Harper asks “How are we to give thanks in every situation when some situations seem to come not from the will of God but from the pit of hell?”
•For one, Harper suggests Gratitude is the response to grace.
There are two times to give thanks:
when you feel like it, and when you don’t.
Therefore make a plan to give thanks,
because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
•John Wesley made it a part of his weekly prayer plan to reflect on gratitude every Saturday:
1- Have I allotted some time for thanking God for the blessings of the past week?
2- Have I, I order to be the more sensible of them, seriously and deliberately considered the several circumstances that attended them?
3- Have I considered each of them as an obligation to greater love, and consequently, to stricter holiness?  (qtd on pp 27-28)

He did this for 60 years.
Can you imagine, weekly for 60 years?
Would you try this for August?

Gratitude reflects God, not circumstances.
(Check out Philippians 4, where Paul has learned
to be content in all circumstances).
God is love, and God is not the author of evil.
God is good to sinners!
Consider Adam & Eve, who did what when they sinned?
They hid. 
What did God do? God called to them.
God provided clothing for them to cover their sin and their shame. God acted in love.
And so we pray Deliver us from evil, and we confess that there is nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:38).
God does not tire of us,
neither does God ever need a break from us.
•So take a moment to write thanksgivings.
•And those situations when you can’t imagine giving thanks?
I’m not exactly going to re-frame those griefs, but hold them in prayer, and trust God.
Pray to see God, to submit to God
(recall God’s will is good, there is no bad in God’s will…
Any bad that happens is not God’s will.
God does not abandon nor is God author of evil.)
Pray to “fully rely on God” regardless of circumstances
•Pray Immanuel God-Is-With-Us…


• Into communion liturgy (eucharist = give thanks)

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