Gracious Host: Pt. 1

By: Adam McClendon

www.newlineministries.com

Psalm 23:5: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Even in the midst of hostile territory when danger lurks all around, God’s people are a blessed people.  We often think of our blessing in heaven, but we are blessed even in this world.  Let’s not miss it.

These blessings are both physical and spiritual and we should acknowledge them.

First, every physical provision we have in our lives is a gift from God and should invoke gratitude.

A pastor from the 1500’s wrote, “All men, it is true, are not treated with the same liberality with which David was treated; but there is not an individual who is not under obligation to God by the benefits which God has conferred upon him so that we are constrained to acknowledge that he is a kind and liberal Father to all his people. … If he is ungrateful who, having only a coarse loaf, does not acknowledge in that the fatherly providence of God, how much less can the stupidity of those be tolerated, who glut themselves with the great abundance of the good things of God which they possess, without having any sense or taste of his goodness towards them” (Calvin Commentary, Psalms, 397)?

What a great quote.  In other words, if we would acknowledge that someone who only has one meal needs to be thankful for that one meal, how much more ought we to be thankful for all that we have.

Secondly, God has provided significant and sufficient spiritual blessing.

God has provided his children with victory and blessing in front of the enemy.

Ephesians 1:3–4, 7-8: ³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. … ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

These blessings are ours now.  We have been blessed now while living in an enemy occupied territory.

These two ways we have been blessed should foster within us a great sense of gratitude; unfortunately, all too often we ignore the blessings in front of us while longing for that which we don’t have.  Three forces which foster a thankless heart.

1. Comparison: A compulsion exists to compare ourselves to others.  We always think everyone else has it better.  It’s a lie!

2. Culture: Commercials are one example.  They are simply designed to entice discontentment.

3. Circumstances: Specifically, when we experience bad or hard circumstances, we tend to miss the blessings we do have.

Since these three forces tend to foster a thankless heart, here are three brief warnings.  We need to:

1. Beware of the “What if?”  The reality is that it could always be worse. 

2. Beware of the “Why me?”  No one is exempt from tragedy.  The reality is that we live in a fallen world.  We sometimes experience the consequences of bad decisions, whether ours or someone else’s.

3. Beware of the “I’m mad at God.”  We don’t know how God may have intervened to keep circumstances from being worse than they were.  The reality is that we are not God and there is a lot about life and how circumstances are interrelated that we simply don’t know.  The reality is we are called to be God’s servant; he is not called to be ours.  My life is to be his and he is good.

So, let’s be thankful.  Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus the author, perfecter, and shepherd of our faith.  We’ll talk more on this topic next week.

www.newlineministries.com