True Gratefulness and Real Strength

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church, deception, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, following Jesus, God's voice, knowing God, love, Satan, spiritual strength, T.A. Sparks, thankfulness, the devil

Maybe you, like me, were inclined to believe that we are to express thankfulness toward God whenever something good, in our view, has happened to us. That is not wrong an attitude in itself, however, where is our gratitude when God allows bad things in our sight again (!), happen to us as well?  🤔

I have come to know several people over the years who usually express thankfulness as they discern a glass half-full and not half-empty. Nonetheless, it is not necessary to be a Christian to be able to do so. It is a matter of personality alone that decides whether we have to do with an optimist or with a pessimist. Indeed, it is nothing but innate thinking and behavior of our old nature that makes people appear as if they were Christians. Bold words, huh? 🙄 If you happen to read my blog more often, you might presume that I primarily point to the social gospel type of Christian here, people who work hard for the Lord in their own and other people’s view. However, they have never come to know Jesus on a personal and intimate level themselves. All they know about God was what they read and heard and saw other ‘Christians’ do. Our Lord will make it clear one day what the difference between those who were known and famous Christians in this world and those who were unknown nobodies, yet being known by God, will be.

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Where our real strength comes from

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abiding in Christ, God's love, Jesus Christ, joy, peace, quietness of heart, rest, spiritual strength, trust, weakness, wisdom

I have always been a weak woman, though not necessarily outwardly, but the One who knows me better than anyone else has always known about my frail health, my indecisiveness, and my lack of assertiveness. Actually, it grieved me a lot that I was never as healthy as other people, yet I fought against it with sports and I had to try harder to do so than others who never felt fatigued or were never plagued by physical pains and sicknesses. Just recently I thought that it was a great gift from God to have me act that way, that is, to never give up, but to fight despite feeling bad most of the time. I know that God can heal and sometimes He truly did. Yet often times He decides to not heal us and only He knows why.

To put it more spiritually, I was wondering where our spiritual strength might come from. What is it that makes us strong when we are weak? What helps us to face circumstances that grieve us and of which we know that we cannot change them? We know that Paul lived that life of spiritual strength in light of many adverse circumstances. Even his flesh (body) was affected, yet God would not help him as Paul had wished. Instead, the Lord said,