Page 15 - praiseandthanks

energies praising and thanking Him Who alone can finally bring

sense into it all. Wife bashing, alcoholism, a nasty temper,
marriage breakup, children suffering, the death of a partner, a

wrecked car, a burnt house and sad loss of all belongings, a

bad season, lack of any job, insanity in the family, a war, the
common opinion has it that it doesn’t make sense to praise God

for such things, and it doesn’t. They are just not things to praise

God for and we should refuse to do so.” But, but, but what are
the alternatives? Do they work? Does praise and thanks work?

We will see for ourselves if we give it a real chance, stepping

out in ultimate faith.

As Carruthers says it didn’t make sense when Jesus said to

leap for joy because you are poor, hungry, in jail, persecuted –

but that’s what Jesus said. We are meant to live on a higher
plane. We mustn’t let doubts and loud voices take over no

matter how persistent they become. Remember what I said that

by looking repeatedly at the problem we can become
mesmerised by it and lose hope. We are to look at Jesus,

praising and thanking Him that the whole situation is just what it

is, just what it is, showing us how totally helpless we actually
are and that there is a God there that can help us. Thank God

we are able to do that. This is not to bury our heads in the
sand; it is to believe in a higher power – personally getting God

to take over. Only God knows the wisdom and the fruit of this.

We can be thankful because faith tells us we know God is using
the situation, no matter how hopeless, how bad and difficult it

is, to help us in some perhaps unseen, mysterious way. It may

be all about blessing those we love. A loving faith makes it easy
for God to work. “Do you mean to say that God can transform

this terrible situation into something good because I turn to Him

in praise and thanks?” I do.

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