Knowing is much more important than understanding. To understand something or someone, you must get to know him or her. When we know God, we can truly understand His heart and love for us. Only then can we have a heart of thanksgiving.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) states three important lessons:
Don’t have anxiety about anything.
Be prayerful in everything.
Be thankful in all things.
Don’t Have Anxiety:
The only way to have no anxiety and be able to be thankful in all things is to know and trust God and His love for us. Scripture explains how to be deeply rooted in love.
Ephesians 3:16 (AMP) states:
May God grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self [indwelling your innermost being and personality], so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love (God Himself), be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people), the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing endless love]; and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].
Once we have said Yes to Jesus for our salvation, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in our innermost being through our faith in God and His Kingdom governance – His will and ways. Only then, can we be rooted, securely grounded in Him since He is love (1 John 4:8). The richness of His presence surpasses mere knowledge, it should be experienced. When our focus is on Him and His love instead of on us, our fleshly desires and outward circumstances, we can fully experience Him.
When we understand and believe in His Word and promises, we wouldn’t be filled with anxiety, we would be filled with expectations of good things to come.
Genesis 50:20 (GW) 20 Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now.
Romans 8:28 (GW) 28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God—
When we know that no matter what the devil throws at us, God will turn it into good, or that God’s promises to us is His Word, we will then have no anxiety and have a heart filled with thanksgiving. God is incapable of lying so when we believe, we can receive (Mat. 21:22), which means we can trust Him and His love for us. We don’t trust people we don’t know.
Doubt, unbelief and believing He is a punishing God hinder believing He is love. After reading many books from theologians who write about the inaccuracies of some Bible translations, I come to believe that God is not a punishing God to His children. He, however, does bring judgment on evil and those who refuse to repent. With His children, God is merciful, redemptive and loving. He lets us learn from the consequences of our choices but promises to be with us through it.
Let’s look at God’s heart toward those who choose to repent:
The prodigal son:
Because of His great love for humanity, God made a way for us to come back to Him, like the Prodigal Son did in Luke 15:11. The son asked his father for his inheritance early. He wanted to live his own life away from his father. However, he embraced a sinful lifestyle and squandered all his inheritance. In the end, he worked in the pig pens, one the lowest jobs you could get in biblical times.
The Prodigal put his pride aside and chose to return home to his father. The father waited years in expectation of his son’s return. When he finally saw him from afar, coming back home, the father ran to the son with open arms – no judgment, no punishment. Once home, the father gave his son sandals for his bare feet and a signet ring. In biblical times, signet rings signified the status, authority and even wealth of a family. This ring was proof that the son belonged to that family. The father was so happy that he threw the biggest party to celebrate his son’s return.
This story is an example of how our Heavenly Father is with us. God is love (1 John 4:8) and He is merciful! He longs for us to come to Him, to shower us with love, blessings, gifts, and opportunities to celebrate. Citizens of the Kingdom get to wear His spiritual signet ring showing that we belong to the Father and can access His status, authority, power, and wealth.
Jesus Is Merciful
I John 1:9 (AMP) states: “If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises] and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoings].” If we are truly remorseful, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive.
Jesus who is Love, always looks for opportunities to be merciful:
For God did not send the Son in to the world to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound in Him. He who believes in Him [who clings to, trust in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who rests in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation – he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for sentence) lies in this; the Light has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil (John 3:17-19, AMPC).
Are you actually unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4, AMP), (not His judgment.)
THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit (Romans 8:1, AMPC, emphasis added).
Jesus took on our punishment at the cross. Because of what he did at the cross on our behalf, we should be eternally grateful and thankful. The cross saved us from an eternity in Hell. He took our judgment and sins upon Himself. But remember, to enter Heaven, and be part of His family and Kingdom, we need to say Yes to Jesus (see my book Say Yes to Jesus to get more understanding). Those who reject Jesus and His gift of atonement (reparation of an offense or crime), are choosing Hell as their forever home.
Be Prayerful in Everything:
Jesus always thanked God before doing the miraculous. Before He multiplied food (see Matthew 14:19, Mark 6:41, Mark 8:6, Luke 9:16, John 6:11), He gave thanks then blessed it. Before raising Lazarus from the dead (see John 11:39-44), Jesus prayed “Father, I thank you that You have heard Me.” The revelation is that when we want something to happen, we thank God for it and then wait in expectation. This shows that we trust God to bring it to pass (see Mark 11:24).
Abraham, the Father of Faith, “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17, KJV). Likewise, “Whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given you” (Mark 11:24, AMP).
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 it states “Pray without ceasing.”
Be Thankful in All Things
When my husband and I moved from Canada to the United States, I had to put my faith into practice and trust God for the things we needed. I did not want to become full of anxiety, so I called things that were not as though they were (Romans 4:17). I started thanking God ahead of time for everything I needed: “Father, I thank you for the great Christian school that you are picking out for our son, and the great friends he will have there. I thank you for the great house you already picked out for us. I’m excited to see it. Thank you for the great church family that we will have since we don’t know a soul there.”
When we got to our new country, we found a great house, a Christian school a short three-minute drive away, and a church family we stayed with for five and a half years until God moved us again. God has always come through for us.
A heart of gratitude and thanksgiving pleases God. The Bible states in Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.” When we have a heart of thankfulness and gratitude, we cannot be shaken by the enemy.
We shouldn’t act thankful just to get something from God but the point is when we do have a heart filled with gratitude and thankfulness, it is an environment for God to show up. When we have revelation of His love, our heart and our life reflect it. We would live a life of freedom and thanksgiving.
Our revelation of thanksgiving is based on Jesus and what He did for us versus our focus on us and our circumstances, for example,
- Doctor gives you a bad report, the doctor says,” you have ____________________” (fill in the blank).
Someone who has revelation of God’s love for them would say: “Thank God I’ve been healed of that. The doctor says … but God says I have been healed!
- A boss says, “Sorry we have to let you go, you no longer have a job:
Revelation of God’s love would say “wow God that means you have something so much better coming to me. Thank you, I can’t wait to see.”
- You may fail 10 times before you make your first million:
Someone who understands God and His love would say “you mean to tell me I only have to fail 10 times before I make my million! Yes! Let’s do it.” The people with a “lack” mentality and focus on themselves would get down on themselves and want to quit.
- Our trust should always be “God I can’t wait to see how you will handle this, thank you for the victory!”
Lastly, 1 John 4:18 states “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears, has not been perfected in love.” Most fears come from believing we will be punished by God, but when we are completely submerged in His love, fear cannot exist. There also cannot be any fear when we know the devil and demons have already been defeated. (see my book Life in God’s Kingdom: How to Manifest Heaven on Earth)
Knowing the love of God and what Jesus did at the cross in your place, will fill you with a heart of thanksgiving. When our soul is filled with thanksgiving, instead of fear and worry, we can manifest Heaven on earth.
Get my new book Life in God’s Kingdom, How to Manifest Heaven on Earth. Learn how to succeed financially, emotionally, spiritually and physically “on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Be free to be mighty for Jesus
In freedom and might,
Jeannette
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