Fattening for the Kill … So Be Thankful tagged: , ,

Fattening for the Kill … So Be Thankful

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I’d only been a Christian about a year when Dr. Clyde Francisco came to our little New England church to teach us the January Bible Study. I was privileged to have him in my home for dinner one evening. As we talked, I shared how blessed I was and how good God was to me. I couldn’t understand because of the life I’d led before met Jesus. I told him how amazed I was that God answered my every prayer. I elaborated specifically on my requests and God’s answers. Then I asked Dr. Francisco why. “Why is He so good to me when I’ve been so horrible towards Him?”

He smiled. “He’s fattening you for the kill.”

He went on to explain that sometimes God blesses us to strengthen our faith for a task He is going to give us in the future. Sometimes He answers the seemingly small things so we can remember them when we are tested with His silence or difficulty. Then Dr. Francisco added, “so be thankful.”

That was over 30 years ago. Since then, the Lord has fattened me many times. And I have been tested in the “kill” many times also. Sometimes I forgot to be thankful in the “fattenings” and became just as Israel after their Red Sea experience of deliverance.

“The waters covered their adversaries and not one was left. Then [Israel] believed His words; they sang His praise. But they hastily forgot His works…” Psalm 106:11-13a.

Sometimes I wonder how much easier things might have been for Israel had they not hastily forgotten God’s works and His deliverance. He delivered them not just from the hands of Pharoah, but from years and years of slavery. Jesus delivers us from the bondage of sin and gives us His sufficiency to meet every task before us. I wonder today how much easier my life could have been had I not so hastily forgotten God’s works and deliverance.

“Oh that men would praise [and confess to] the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and rehearse His deeds with shouts of joy and singing!” Psalm 107:21,22

Can we still shout with joy and sing praises even though we are met with difficulty? I think this may be the sacrifice of thanksgiving God seeks from us.

As God gives us trials and struggles of everyday living, we become stronger in our faith and Christian walk as we entrust ourselves to Him. As we give Him our cares and cast them upon Him, He strengthens us with those challenges–those weights of life.

Somehow, the more a Christian is dealt difficulty, the harder the difficulty seems to become each time. I do not think this is coincidence. I think God knows we will give Him our difficulty and present to Him the circumstance with faith and dependence on Him to get us through it. I think we get bigger and bigger difficulties (in the eyes of those around us) because He knows we will take His yoke upon us. As we do, He carries the load. As others watch us meet the weight’s load, God is glorified. The weight of our heartache is lifted in His grace, for His grace is sufficient. In our weakness, His strength is made perfect and more visible to others. And no matter what we face tomorrow, we know He is able to keep us in that tomorrow. And for this we can be thankful. selahV

[FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW, I write a daily devotional for sbcIMPACT which you can read by clicking on the dailyIMPACT icon at the top of this post to the right. OR you can simply click HERE. ]

FOR MY THANKSGIVING TURKEY STORY GO [HERE.]

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007}