As a man thinks in his heart so is he! As we look at our lives today and strive to see what God sees about us we need to remember that what we think deep down in our hearts to be the truth we will live out! If I can believe that life is worth smiling about, I will smile. If I can believe that life in Jesus is fascinating I will be fascinated and can stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.
We may not be what we want ourselves to eventually be. We may not be today what God eventually wants us to be. That's
okay, because as long as we are faithfully following Jesus, we are who God wants us to be today! Paul said "he who has
begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
I don't know how many watched Tim the toolman when it was on. There was one time when instead of Tim going to see
Wilson, it was Jill. She had a complaint that Tim just wasn't the man she thought he should be. Wilson asked her one
question, is Tim as bad as when you first met him? Jill said no, so Wilson said "looks like Tim is on his way."
We're on our way! I'm not what I was 10 years ago, nor am I what I was 5 years ago, God is working on us!
This week, we are going to deal with a different type of struggle than the first two. This type of thought pattern keeps us from really enjoying life and specifically the life that God has graciously given to us. It is the idea that I cannot be thankful! As a man thinks in his heart so is he. If you are the type of person that wakes up in the morning and looks in the mirror and is constantly reminding yourself that there isn't really that much in your life to be thankful for, you will cause yourself to miss out on much of the Christian life! You say you want to be thankful or you want to be content but you just cant! It's not necessarily that you don't have anything to be thankful for but the things to be complaining about just seem to be much bigger and wins out in the attitude race! The things you wanted in this life you didn't end up getting and it became the things you needed and so God has somehow failed to meet your every need!
Before we begin this lesson could you close your eyes and just picture if you will a beautiful garden? You walk through it and you stop at this magnificent flower. It is red at the top and its fragrance you have smelled before and its just beautiful. Yet, down that stem you notice all these unpleasant hurtful things called thorns. Now, what describes you: I see a rose with thorns, or I see thorns with a beautiful rose? The way you look at things determines your response.
As a man thinks in his heart so is he. You can look at the thorns and let that ruin the beauty of the rose! Many times the reasons we are not thankful people filled with grins is because we convince ourselves that we can't be thankful joyous people.
How does being unthankful in our hearts play out in our lives? First of all, if you are unthankful in your mind, you cannot hide this in your life! This thought pattern for sure will come out in some regard.
(continue to the rest of this lesson.)