The Peace God Desires we Have!

November should always be an exciting month. In America, we celebrate a day of Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of the month. Wikipedia states the following:

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth
by Jennie A. Brownscombe. (1914)

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has officially been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863, when during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. ...The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 13 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

For Americans it is supposed to be a time of Joy, Peace, and Thanks to God in looking back over the year and our life at how He has faithfully provided for us, even during the trying times. However, the enemy does not desire that we give thanks to God for anything. He is feverishly working in order to put our minds and our thoughts on anything but the Lord. Oh how easy it is for us to look inward and find a place for self-pity. The flesh craves the dust from which it came; yet the Holy Spirit, whom God has graciously given to all who believe upon the Lord Jesus, desires us to look upward to God and outward at our fellow man. When we look inward we allow the sin of pride to get a stranglehold on our thoughts. We begin to say, "I deserve better." Or, "I deserve this or that." We begin to lose track of what God has graciously given to each of us. Have you ever paused to give thanks to God for running water, flushing toilets, heaters and clothing to bring warmth, shoes to cover your feet, and friends who will listen and empathize with your situation? Many just take these things for granted and they turn in ire toward God, the giver of all good things. And in doing so, the enemy of God, the devil, laughs as he says to himself in pride, "I have done my job well."

I love the way Charles Stanley of First Baptist Church, Atlanta Ga. describes the wiles of the devil. He states:

The Devil is real. Scripture reveals that he leads an army of fallen angels and is prideful enough to think he can gain victory over God. By definition, a satanic attack is a deliberate assault upon an individual, which is designed to cause spiritual, physical, material, or emotional harm. Satan desires to thwart the Lord's purpose in believers' lives, to rob them of joy and peace, and ultimately to deny God the worship He receives through yielded followers.

The last statement, underlined, speaks volumes. God desires our fellowship and Satan desires our disdain. He desires we reject God and live in anger, and resentment; that we sever any relationship to God, because He is an unfair God who really doesn't see our plight. Satan would have you believe that God doesn't see your situation, that He does not care. If we listen to these lies we quickly can be filled with internal wrath, doubt, and unease. We can be turned from thanksgiving and peace into hardheartedness, anger and distrust. In short he desires to rob us of our joy in Christ. The Bible says this:

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Ephesians 1:15-21 (NKJV)

What I underlined above is what God desires. It tells us that God desires to give us understanding if we ask. Satan says, "Do not ask, I will tell you about who this God really is" and we often listen to him instead of going to the Lord for true wisdom.

This Thanksgiving season make it a point that you will seek God and leave the devil in the dust. God is our Rock and our Fortress, our Stronghold against lies. This Thanksgiving be thankful for truth. Live in the Peace God desires you to have in Christ and for His sake, be thankful!!

God Bless

Bro. Mike

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