TLP 213: Teach Your Children to Be Grateful, Part 2

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A consistent spirit of ingratitude is often a blaring warning that the individual simply does not know

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God. Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use

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God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents. Here's your host,

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A .M. Brewster. Welcome back to our study ingratitude. I hope your kids are joining us or that you plan to take this information, make it your own, and then teach it to your kids.

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Truth. Love. Parent exists to glorify God by preparing dads and moms to be the ambassador parents God called and created them to be.

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The first part of that is equipping parents to be the men and women of God they can be in His power. And the second part is to help parents equip their children to be the men and women of God they can be through His power.

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And that's why we're here. I hope that's why you're here. And if this is your first visit with us, I welcome you and I invite you to start your biblical parenting journey with us at the very beginning of our pilot season in episode 1.

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I'm working is also going to be free. We believe that there is nothing more important than reaching each family member for the glory of God, and we're willing to work tirelessly to that end.

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But you may be wondering how we can finance this. The answer is simple. God uses the generous gifts of His people to cover our costs, and I have two exciting things to tell you that even longtime listeners of the show haven't heard yet.

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The first is that we have a new patron. Lisa recently signed up on Patreon .com to support

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TLP. She believes so much in what God is doing through this show and that she's committed to giving every month.

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So thank you so much, Lisa. And the second piece of exciting news is that we're in the beginning stages of becoming a non -profit.

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Christian Legal Society, and we're studying and we're reading and we're trying to do our due diligence. And I have two requests based off of this news.

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The first is, if you are well -versed in the inner workings of a Christian non -profit, I would love to talk to you.

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I'm not looking for legal counsel so much as I am anecdotal advice. You can send an email to TeamTLP at TruthLoveParent .com

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if you'd like to connect. And second, the legal fees required to set up the non -profit are going to be about $2 ,000.

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TLP link in the description of this episode. There you'll learn many ways that you can encourage and support

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Truth Love Parent, including all the ways that you can give financially. I hope you are excited about these developments.

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I am super thrilled, and I hope you're asking yourself what you can do to help us fulfill our mission.

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And with Giving Tuesday coming up, Lord willing, a number of you will be burdened to get involved. But before we move on, there's one more awesome way you can get involved.

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I want to thank you for being awesome, God -loving parents. I'm so honored that you've invited TLP along for the ride, and I'm happy to serve you in any way possible.

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Okay, let's finalize our discussion, for now anyway, about teaching your children to be grateful.

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Last time, we defined thanksgiving, and we saw that the ultimate recipient of our gratitude must be

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God. We also saw just a small handful of some of the things we have to be thankful for, and we learned that the root of gratitude is humility, trust, contentment, and joy.

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Today we're going to focus on three things. Number one, we'll study the opposite of thanksgiving. Two, we'll talk about the only people who don't thank

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God. And three, we're going to sprint through how we can be thankful even when life is painful.

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So number one, what is the opposite of thanksgiving? There are two biblical words on which I want to focus.

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The first is covetousness. James 4, 1 -2 says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

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Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder.

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You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Covetousness is wanting something that's not yours to have.

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It's forbidden by the tenth commandment. And covetousness is comprised of the four roots of ingratitude.

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Arrogance and pride lead someone to think they deserve better than they have. They don't trust what God knows what is best and is actively working for the individual's good.

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They're not content with God's plan. And they definitely don't have joy. This is why they fight and murder and quarrel.

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Now, how does one identify a covetous heart? That's the second biblical word we need to understand today. Philippians 2, 14 reads, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

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First Peter 4, 9 tells us, show hospitality to one another without grumbling. James 5, 9 says, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

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Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Jude 1, 14 through 16 prophesies, behold, the

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Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that have been committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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These are grumblers, malcontents. Following their own sinful desires, they are loudmouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

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1 Corinthians 10, 9 through 10 reminds us of the sin of the Old Testament Jews. We must not put

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Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

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And Numbers 14, 11 takes us back to the time when God had commanded the people of Israel to enter the promised land, but they not only didn't believe the good spies, they wanted to stone them for suggesting they should take the land of Canaan as the

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Lord commanded. And it says this, And the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people despise me, and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

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What followed was forty years of wandering in the wilderness until everyone who refused to obey God was dead.

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One of the best things we can do for our children is pay attention to and address their grumbling and complaining.

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Complaining is always, always, always, always, always a sin. I don't care if someone is complaining about someone else's sin.

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Complaining is one of the first natural consequences of covetousness. Greed and envy starts in the heart when someone pridefully believes a lie and stops trusting

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God. Their joy is immediately sapped and discontentment sets in, but most of that is internal.

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Griping and grumbling is usually one of the first external indicators. Of course, fighting is also a huge indicator of a lack of unthankfulness.

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That's why it's said in Philippians 2 .14, Do all things without grumbling or disputing.

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Covetousness and the grumbling that accompanies it are the opposite of gratitude. There's obviously so much more that could be said about this, and I definitely want to equip you to help your children overcome a complaining spirit, but we must move on.

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Lord willing, we'll dedicate a whole episode, or maybe even a series, to complaining in the future. 2.

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Our second focus for the day is to look briefly at the only kind of people that are ungrateful. Let's read

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Isaiah 38, 16 -19. O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit.

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O restore me to health and make me live. Behold it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness.

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But in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

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For Sheol does not thank you, death does not praise you. Those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

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The living, the living, He thanks you, as I do this day. The Father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

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There are treasures too deep to mine from this passage today, but for now we must see that God separates mankind into two categories, the living and the dead.

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And before I continue, I just want to encourage you to check out TruthLoveParent .com. Our blog, Taking Back the

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Family, has free episode notes for today, so you can check out those notes and see all these verses and be able to study even more when you download those notes.

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The living, however, thanks God for his faithfulness, but the dead does not. Death does not praise

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God, and neither do the dead. Now, what does all this mean? Well, the obvious truth is that unregenerated people, those on their way to eternal death, have nothing for which to be thankful to God.

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Yes, by God's coming grace, unbelievers can experience genuine gratitude, and God has done many wonderful things for them, but since true thankfulness is ultimately given back to God, those who refuse to submit to Him will not be thankful to Him for anything.

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A consistent spirit of ingratitude is also often a blaring warning that the individual does not know

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God. Yes, it may be immaturity or ignorance, but more often than not, consistent and overbearing discontentment is the fruit of a dead heart.

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And if a person truly is redeemed, how much more atrocious is it that they're living like a dead person, completely ungrateful to God for the situation or the person that lay before them?

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Again, there is much more that could be said on this topic, and it's an idea about which we've spoken often.

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Our first and greatest goal for our children should be to introduce them to the incomparable God. Evangelism Parenting is the first responsibility of the

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Ambassador Parents, and we've dedicated a number of episodes to that discussion. You can please check out truthloveparent .com

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and peruse our podcast page to find more. But lastly, I want to revisit a point from our last episode.

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Last time we saw that God commands us to be thankful for all things. First Thessalonians 5, 16 -17 reads,

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Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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First, a little side note. We did a series a while back called Help Your Children Discover God's Will for Their Lives that began in episode 158.

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I mention this because it's not merely God's will for you and your kids that you be thankful for the comfortable things in life, but it's

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God's will for you that you also be thankful for uncomfortable things, the things we're often tempted to call bad.

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Second, far too many people have tried to explain away the import of this verse by saying that God could not possibly expect us to give thanks for difficult circumstances.

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Others have acknowledged that we're to be thankful for painful experiences that yield beneficial outcomes, but they argue that it's inappropriate to truly be thankful for everything because that would mean we're thankful for sin and its consequences.

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But my friends, if we want to understand God's Word, we need to allow God to explain what He means. So, consider

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Ephesians 5, 20. Give thanks always and for everything to God the

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Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. But how is that even possible? How can

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I begin to thank God for my prodigal child, my looming debt, my cancer, my homelessness, my unemployment, my hateful family, my hypocritical church members, my lousy job, my failing health, my wrecked car, and my dying child?

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How can God expect me to be thankful for that? Well, God has the answer, and I want to discuss it here in brief, and I really wish

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I didn't have to speed through it, but we have to consider the time. Thankfully, though, the passage we're about to discuss was the core of the

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Peaceful Parenting series we started in episode 69. There were eight parts to that series in which we took our time walking through Philippians 4 verses 4 through 9.

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So, by God's grace and with His help, let's try to answer the question, how do I and my family give thanks for everything?

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Philippians 4 .6 sets an enormous standard for our gratitude. It says, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto

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God. How can the Christian thank God for the painful experiences in life, the things that tempt us to anxiety?

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I believe this verse is perfectly nestled in the midst of the perfect answer. 1. 1.

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The first focus to which Paul draws us in this verse is verse 4, Rejoice in the

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Lord always, again, I will say rejoice. This mirrors the first commandment from Matthew 22, 37 -38,

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And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

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This is the great and first commandment. Paul says that we must do this always. There's never an appropriate time to not rejoice in God, and just in case we missed it the first time,

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Paul says, again, I will say rejoice. Rejoicing in God brings with it biblical optimism and hope.

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I have hope because God is who He says He is. I don't have to fear my circumstances. He's all holy.

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He's all powerful. He's all knowing. He's all loving. He's trustable. 2. 2.

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If you want to be the type of person who can thank God in all things and or everything, you need to be reasonable.

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Verse 5 reads, Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. The Greek word translated reasonableness can also be understood to mean moderation, gentleness, patience, fairness, mildness, and loving.

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This lines up perfectly with the second commandment from Matthew 22, 39 -40. And the second commandment is like it,

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Paul tells us this love and respect and gentleness needs to be shown to everyone, and he points out that the

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Lord is at hand. This can refer to the fact that Jesus is literally near. His power is accessible to us

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Christians and here and now and in this uncomfortable situation to be what He calls us to be.

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But His being at hand also speaks of His imminent return. Luke 12, 42 -48 says,

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And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

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Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

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But if that servant says to himself, My master is delayed in coming, and he begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him in with the unfaithful.

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And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating.

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But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much is given of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand the more.

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The fact that God could return at any moment can be a wonderful motivation to keep a heavenly mindset and not be distracted by the foolishness of this earth.

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When I love the people God has put into my life, it's nearly impossible to be afraid of them or mad at them. When I love that person causing me difficulty, my main prayer will be for their well -being, even if that means it affects me uncomfortably.

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2 Corinthians 12 15 reads, And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly

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I love you, the less I be loved. If I want to experience true gratitude for all things in my life,

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I must first acknowledge who God is and humbly trust Him. I must also love His creation the way

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He commands. And 3. I need to think correctly. Verse 8 tells us to only dwell on truth.

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We're only allowed to think about that which is worthy of honor, holy, clean, acceptable, commendable, and that which has a good reputation.

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Why is this so important? When I think correctly about my situation, I realize the truth

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I know about God. I don't dwell on possibilities that are not honorable or unholy.

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I don't fear because I imagine impure, unacceptable thoughts. I envision that which is excellent, commendable, and praiseworthy because that's who my

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God is. Isaiah 26 3 tells us that God keeps him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on God because he trusts in God.

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Peace is a natural consequence of true contentment. The second facet of keeping our minds right is to exercise our faith.

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Philippians 4 9 tells us what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.

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James 4 17 reminds us, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

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If I am choosing to believe what I know to be true, I will walk the path God has created for me. This is the path of gratitude.

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And the last facet of our thinking comes from verse 6, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto

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God. God says we're not to be anxious or fearful about anything. In Luke 12 22 through 34, we read the following, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on, and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life.

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If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Oh, you of little faith, and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.

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Luke 10 41 says, but the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

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And in Luke 12 11, Jesus told the disciples, when they bring you before the synagogue and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say.

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And instead of anxiety, we're supposed to make our requests known to God with thanksgiving.

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And what's the outcome of this kind of life? What is the experience of a man and woman and child who loves

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God, loves his people, and who keeps his mind focused on truth? What will this humble, trusting, contented, and joyful individual reap?

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Twice, in these few verses, God promises that such a lifestyle will produce the following, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, and the

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God of peace will be with you. When I acknowledge who God is, turn that love to my neighbor, dwell on truth, and live accordingly, how can

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I possibly be anxious? How could I be unthankful that the sovereign God of the universe is superintending all things for His greatest glory and my greatest good?

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This lifestyle will enable me to experience indescribable peace in the most difficult of times and joyfully thank

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God for being in control. So let me tie up this episode with some final thoughts.

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A logical and still mind that's filled with God's truth will know and believe that God is using the testing and trials and tribulations of this world to mature us, grow us, sanctify us, and for that we can be thankful.

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This includes our failing health and our depleted bank accounts. But can or should we ever be thankful when others sin against us?

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Should we be thankful for our terrorist children, our zombie kids, and our enemies? I don't believe we should be thankful for the actual commission of sin.

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Sin is the ultimate offense against God. But you see, therein lies the rub. When I see sin as an affront against me, then

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I can justify hating everything that follows. But when I see sin as an attack against God, and I acknowledge that God cannot be overcome but will, in fact, use the sin of man to accomplish

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His will, then it's not the sin in which I rejoice, but how God promises to use it.

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The most perfect example of this is our redemption. Because of the sin of Judas and the

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Jewish leaders and Pilate, God purchased our salvation by offering the sinless Son of God as a substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world.

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Are we glad that evil men attacked God? No, but we give thanks for the fact that God promises to work out all things, even sin, for good.

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But remember, we must love Him and be working toward His purposes, and that takes us back to Philippians 4.

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I highly recommend that you listen to the Peaceful Parenting series started in episode 69. It will be a beautiful follow -up to today's discussion.

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You'll be able to spend more time diving into the deep truth of Philippians 4 to learn what true peace looks like.

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And please consider sharing this episode, and join us next time as we discuss parenting like Lot. Lot's parenting journey was a sad one indeed, but it's so very instructive for us.

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I hope you'll be back for that. And don't forget about becoming a patron. Forming a non -profit is just one small part of our vision for Truth Love Parent.

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Please prayerfully consider what the Lord might have you do. Listen, there's a lot of dark and uncomfortable in this world, but God can command us to be thankful for it because He knows who

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He is and what He plans to do, and for that we are eternally grateful. I'll see you next time.

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Truth. Love. Parents. Is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional premeditated parent.

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Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.