Thankful and Grateful For What Was, What Is and What Is To Come
Sometimes we as believers living "in the flesh" and not in the spirit, praise God when we "make it through" our circumstance. We praise and offer up a shout of thanksgiving when OUR prayer is answered to our liking. We praise and offer thanks when OUR standards are met to a certain quality or to OUR satisfaction. When the package or delivery does not come "exactly" as we desire, we hold back our praise. We may offer a word of thanks, but we may not be "truly" grateful. However, whatever the Lord blesses us with is GOOD! Its All Good! Even those things that Satan and his minions mean for evil, God can turn around for our good!
We must be careful not to become like the Israelites who went back and forth with their praise and thanks. They were double minded. Sometimes they were grateful for being led out of the captivity of Egypt, and other times they couldn't offer a word of thanks for the manna they received because they could only think of the food they had WHILE IN BONDAGE in Egypt. But hold up, even then God provided in Egypt and protected them while they were in captivity.
He does the same for us today when we are in situations that are not "ideal". We can still be thankful and grateful while in temporary and not so ideal situations because it can always be worse. More importantly though, when we are in any type of "situation", "captivity" or non-ideal situation, there is PROMISE of something greater to come. If you study the book of Jeremiah you find that the people were in captivity, however, it was orchestrated by God, and He promised that He had greater plans for them. He promised that they would not be captives always and that He had plans to prosper them and a great future.
Another example, It took several, several years for the Israelites to reach the Promise Land (mostly because of their disobedience), BUT the PROMISE was fulfilled.
It took several years and lots of hard work for the temple to be built. Several set ups and set backs, but the PROMISE was fulfilled. Those who were able to focus on the "fulfillment of the promise" and not just on the "temple as it was" were able to shout and praise God and were thankful and grateful for "what is", and the fulfillment of God's promise for what is to come!
Those who focused more on the "building" and "what was" and not the fulfillment of the promise could not fully see the marvelous works of God for "what is." When God can't see and measure our Faithfulness, thankfulness and gratefulness in ALL things (what was; no matter how disappointing) and what is; no matter how different from "what was" or our expectations); How can He trust our faithfulness to praise and worship Him for "what is to come?"
With all that being said, the great thing about this passage is that when the shouts from those looking at what was and those looking at what is came together it formed in such a way that it all "sound like an awesome praise of thankfulness and gratefulness" in one voice. The shouts of praise and gratefulness overpowered any other type shout.
We as believers need to remember and apply that same praise frame today. When caught up in a group that can't fully accept that ALL THINGS of God are good ( no matter how it appears) the praisers must continue to praise and over power any other type of shout. God will get the glory, and we might even change the entire atmosphere and get everyone on the same accord. We can either change the atmosphere or the atmosphere will change us! Let the people of the Lord Praise Him! Let our Praise inhabit the place! Give God the Glory and watch "what is to come!"
Created about 1 year ago
