First of all, give thanks Part 1
First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 1 Timothy 2:1-2
This week I will be posting excerpts from my book, First of All, Pray. Paul urged in 1 Timothy 2 that the people of God place prayer for others as a top priority in their lives. The giving of thanks is included in that list of “first of all” ways to pray.
Excerpt from Chapter 1:
Thanksgivings
“You may not think of thanksgiving in and of itself as a type of prayer, but it is. In fact, if you look at all the scriptures using this word, you can clearly see that thanksgiving is to be involved in everything you do. And because the plural for thanksgiving is used in 1 Timothy 2:1, you are to present unlimited thanksgivings to God.
“Philippians 4:6 states, ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God’ (emphasis added). As you pray and supplicate about the stressful situations in your life, the Bible commands you to thank God as you pray. This addresses two very important truths about living life. The first truth has to do with life’s anxieties—no one is guaranteed a charmed, easy-going life! Your life will have its share of stress and conflict. If this were not the case, you wouldn’t find so many verses in the Bible about praying when difficult times arise. If you look at the condition of our nation and your stomach starts to churn with worry, the only healthy recourse is to pray. Pretending that nothing is wrong in order to protect yourself from anxiety will not bring the power of God on the scene. God made prayer available to you during your time here on earth in great part because of the prevalence of anxiety-causing conditions.” (Excerpt taken from pages 19-20; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis; © 2013–Dorothy Frick)
In American history, the first Thanksgiving followed a time of extreme hardships for those who celebrated it. The Pilgrims left their homeland in England, and then Holland, primarily to escape religious persecution. Of the 120 passengers who set sail in 1620, only 53 were still alive for the first Thanksgiving, November, 1621.
You would think that the exposure to the elements, disease, and death which stalked the group, wiping out half of their number, would shroud the rest of them with hopelessness and despair, but despite the harsh trials, these believers chose to thank God instead. They knew how to lift up their eyes from the daunting circumstances surrounding them to fix their gaze and adoration on the Lord and Savior who had never left them without comfort. Such was the caliber of the men and women who left their homes to secure for themselves a new homeland where they could be free to worship God as they saw fit. These dear souls, by their heartfelt love of God and perseverance, blazed a trail that the rest of us privileged to live here could follow.
You, also, may be facing extreme difficulty in your life. Our nation, itself, is suffering under escalating levels of discord, disillusionment, and despair. Despite all that is going on around you, though, the witness of that little band of Pilgrims and their native guests has stood firm throughout the centuries ever since. Here is their message to you, alive in 2013:
Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks, and do not cease to give thanks. Do not ask your circumstances, your body, your bank account, or the daily news if you should give thanks to God; give thanks, and when you are finished—give thanks!
Dorothy
Read MoreThanksgiving and Christmas
I wanted to let you know what I plan to do with the First of All Pray blog for the next several weeks. By God’s grace, we will complete the study on the book of James later on, but first I desire to spend some time next week focusing on the topic of thanksgiving. Only three entries will arrive next week; Thursday-Sunday I will be taking off to enjoy the holiday.
In December when I return to the blog, my plan is to write entries related to Christmas—five days, not six days each week—during the month.
Like many of you, I love the Christmas season; the atmosphere is filled with joy and expectation, warmth and well-wishes. Even more hardened souls open a bit during the holiday, and I believe a childlike vulnerability buried deep beneath coarse and rough exteriors peeks out in wonder at the lights, the snow, the carolers…and that nativity scene proclaiming the virgin birth of Christ. This is why Christmas has been so viciously attacked—it speaks with the profound innocence of childhood and hope, effectively arresting the emotions of those who don’t want to believe. In assailing Christmas, such souls hope to escape its message—one presented not only in song and words, but in life-changing power as well.
May you be blessed with joy, peace, grace, and abiding faith, hope, and love in the upcoming season!
Dorothy
Read MoreA letter from Trappist nuns from Azeir, Syria, August 29, 2013
Please forgive me if you do not think that religion and politics should be mentioned in the same breath. But many Christians in Egypt are in dire straights, and many others called by His name have been affected by the escalating warfare in Syria. Their perspective is important. The link below will send you to a letter written by Trappist nuns who are in the middle of the violence.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/09/a-letter-from-trappist-nuns-in-syria-blood-fills-our-streets-our-eyes-our-hearts.html#more (taken from Atlasshrugs website, 9-7-13)
Pray for wisdom and conviction to do what is right for both our leaders and other international leaders who have a say in the whole scenario; pray, also, for the Lord to cover all those called by His name with His precious blood and to protect them with majestic signs and wonders.
Pray for us that we don’t allow our comforts to lull us into prayerlessness; pray that we will no longer find contentment in being unaware of what our brethren are dealing with across the globe. Indeed, the nuns themselves closed their letter with these words:
To those who truly have a heart for Syria (for mankind, for truth…) we ask for prayer…abounding, heartfelt, courageous prayer.
There’s no way I could have said it any better.
UPDATE:
Here’s another perspective, an Israeli one. I think I’ll be spending the day on Wednesday, September 11, in prayer. If you can, pray throughout the day, also.
The link is from an email sent out in the early hours of 9-8-13 by USPRN and includes a letter from an Israeli. http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2c8533b164a12dac690d3544f&id=ccc295c53c&e=1124e96f98
We are called to pray, even (and especially!) for dire situations such as this in which we can’t determine direction with our natural mind. But we have a God in Heaven who hears us and who will intervene and show Himself strong if we will but ask! PRAY!
Dorothy
Read MoreWho satisfies you with good so your youth is renewed like the eagle
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5 English Standard Bible
As you give yourself to the discipline of blessing the Lord and forgetting none of His benefits, His strength and gracious kindness begin to transform your life. You realize that you could never earn any of His benefits; you recognize that you are the recipient of unfathomable, unending grace.
Every benefit David extolled in Psalm 103 was based on what was still in the future—the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Now, in Christ, all these benefits belong to you. Unlike David, you have experienced the ultimate benefit—new birth—as a result of your faith in Jesus as Lord. You are a new creation, the old you has passed away and all things are made new, and He has promised to be with you always, even to the end of the age (see 2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 28:20).
The Lord has provided for all your needs; He has forgiven your sins, He has provided healing for your body, He has redeemed you from hell, and He has crowned you with lovingkindness and compassion. And like David, you will also find the need to remind yourself to forget none of those benefits. It is far too easy to drift away from His inestimable wonders despite how long you’ve known the Lord. You must continually stir yourself up by way of reminder concerning this treasure trove of benefits (see 2 Peter 1:13).
David wrote that the Lord “satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” NASB says He satisfies your years with good things; NIV says He satisfies your desires with good things; and KJV states that He satisfieth thy mouth with good things. The Hebrew word translated years, desires, and mouth is `adiy, and actually means “ornament”. It can also represent the bit in a horse’s mouth.
No matter which meaning you prefer, the bottom line is that one benefit of the Lord is to satisfy you with good, whether in years, desires, or your mouth! Perhaps, in line with the “bit in a horse’s mouth” definition, as you develop a lifestyle of filling your mouth with blessing God and recounting His benefits, you become like a disciplined thoroughbred, allowing God’s bit—a self-controlled mouth—to direct the course of your life toward fruitfulness and good (see James 3:3).
Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
God satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. This is an amazing statement. It is your relationship with God which renews your youth, not Estée Lauder, workouts, or a scalpel. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, both experienced renewed youth as beautiful older women (see Genesis 12 and 26). Caleb, at 85, was as strong as he was when he was forty (see Joshua 14:7-12). Psalm 92:14 says of the righteous, “They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.”
When your youth is renewed like the eagle, you are able to rise up above challenges and soar close to God, hidden under His feathers (see Psalm 91:4). Your perspective is broader than the vision of those who cling tightly to the ground; you seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (see Colossians 3:1-2).
The Apostle Paul also wrote of renewal. He said, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). In a youth-obsessed culture, it is easy to get sucked into the vacuum of superficiality and get fixated on externals. Yet David the king of Israel, surrounded by beautiful women, magnificent opulence, and men of war with imposing strength, remained strong as long as he blessed the Lord, and he was effective in his reign only as he kept his eyes fixed on the benefits of his God.
Isaiah 40:31 testifies that the individual who waits on the Lord “will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Are you exhausted, worn out, feeling as if life has passed you by? Wait on the Lord. Command your soul to bless Him, even in your exhaustion, and recount to yourself all of His benefits. Renewal will come to your soul, and your body will drink in the refreshing. And you? You will mount up, renewed by the Lord, and soar like the mighty eagle.
Bless the Lord!
Dorothy
Read MoreWho crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits…Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion. Psalm 103:1-2; 4b
When you train yourself to bless the Lord, you align yourself with His purposes. You may not be clear as to what those specific purposes for you are, but when you step out of your feelings, logic, and the fast pace of life to give God the honor He deserves, He has a way of depositing understanding into your being, thereby empowering you to make wise decisions.
His benefits are not subject to the erratic conditions of our age or the particulars of your situation. His benefits are rock-solid because He is rock-solid.
David the psalmist commanded himself to bless the Lord. He commanded all that was within him—mind, will, and emotions—to bless the Lord’s holy name. He required himself to forget none of the benefits of the Lord. Yes, David was tremendously successful, but he was also tremendously tempted and attacked. It was due to his strict dedication to bless God and to forget none of His benefits that, when all was said and done in his life, it could be honestly recorded of him in Acts 13:22, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” Even after the enormous failures of his life, David left a testimony that he was a man after God’s own heart who would do all His will. Why? Because he commanded himself to bless the Lord and to forget none of His benefits!
The Lord pardons all your iniquities, heals all your diseases, and redeems your life from the pit. These benefits parallel beautifully with what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, yet there is more. Remember, every benefit David enumerated was merely a shadow of what we have been privileged to possess in Christ. We have the better covenant, based on better promises (see Hebrews 8:6).
Included among the benefits of the Lord is this one: He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion (Psalm 103:4b). Your sins are forgiven, you have access to His healing bounty, and you are absolutely redeemed from the pit of hell. And to top it off, He places a crown on your head of lovingkindness and compassion!
I see three streams flowing from this one benefit.
First of all is the crown of lovingkindness and compassion. Your God views you, from the top of your head on down, with great favor and tender love. The crown of lovingkindness and compassion that He has placed upon you marks you as His and sets you apart. I have observed younger children on field trips wearing the same brightly colored T-shirts. This makes them visible so their teachers can spot them without difficulty. The crown God has placed on your head makes you easily visible to Him; it separates you from the rest of the crowd and grants Him smooth access for dispensing His love and compassion upon you. If you are His, you are a recipient of His lovingkindness and compassion. Don’t let yourself forget it.
Secondly, we have been crowned with lovingkindness and compassion. One definition of the Hebrew word for crown, `atar, is “to surround”. (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5849&t=KJV ) In other words, He surrounds us with lovingkindness and compassion. Wherever you go, you can be confident that the Lord is going to see to it that you are surrounded with favor. That hasn’t been your experience? Then bless the Lord and forget none of His benefits! My sister, who has not yet received Jesus as Lord, recently told me that she challenged herself to think positive thoughts for a set number of days. She was shocked when strangers began going out of their way to be kind to her. If this principle works for a person who has yet to be convinced about the claims of Christ, then how much more will those of us who are in Christ—recipients of the benefits and promises—find lovingkindness and compassion surrounding us as we refuse to forget His benefits? Trust Him in this and refuse to forget this portion of His benefits. You will soon find that you are surrounded by a wide assortment of loving, compassionate, and favorable “coincidences”.
Thirdly, when you are crowned, it signifies that you are a member of a royal family. You have a crown to wear because your father or mother is of royal lineage. In your case, your Father is the King of the Universe, and His Son, your elder Brother, is King of kings and Lord of lords.
As you go about life, you are crowned with His favor and compassion. But this crown is not just about you. It is your identification with the Father, and it gives you an ambassadorship wherever you go. Yes, as an ambassador, you are a very privileged person, but you are also accountable to act as a clear representative of the One who sends you. You are crowned and surrounded by His lovingkindness and compassion, and you are a representative of His lovingkindness and compassion. “Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48, Holman Christian Standard Bible). That expectation is not to be viewed as tedious or difficult—“the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5b). It is because of that crown of lovingkindness and compassion that you are empowered to bring compassion and grace to the people in your life. If it feels impossible to you right now, then now’s the time you need to bless the Lord and to refuse to forget that He’s crowned you!
You wear a crown that targets you for God’s lovingkindness and compassion; you are surrounded by lovingkindness and compassion; and you are an ambassador of God’s lovingkindness and compassion. This is who you are!
Don’t forget it!
Dorothy
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