SUMMARY: If I resist God’s process and instead demand that God operate on my schedule, my impatience will rob me of thankfulness. Instead, thank God for His PROCESS and let His PROCESS increase your perseverance and patience.

(This series of writings, “The Enemies of Thankfulness,” was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18

Because I know that I am not as thankful as I should be, I have made a commitment to try to be thankful more often and to have vital, deep thanksgiving become a regular part of my prayers and my conversations. To help me in this endeavor, I am in the process of writing a series of blogs about what I call “the enemies of thankfulness,” prompted by John MacArthur’s excellent teaching on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 about the Christian’s responsibility to be thankful at all times and in all circumstances. One reason that Christian’s struggle with being thankful is that there are enemies to our thankfulness in our fallen world. So far in this series I have talked about the enemies of DOUBT, SELFISHNESS, WORLDLINESS and A CRITICAL SPIRIT. This blog will address the fifth and final enemy of thankfulness, the problem of IMPATIENCE.

There are two broad categories of impatience. The first category includes those things that make us spontaneously act impatiently, like traffic lights that don’t change fast enough or fast food lines that move too slowly. I am sure that you could add your own personal list of stimuli that cause you to act impatiently, things that are basically minor irritants. These irritants are trivial in the big scheme of things, but God places them in our lives to teach us patience.

There is a second category of impatience, however, which runs much deeper and wider than a mere irritation and is much more difficult to root out and vanquish. This is the profound form of impatience that at its core is a frustration with God’s process of change or of answering my prayers. The key word is PROCESS. God works through process, ordaining not only all things that come to pass, but also the timing of all that comes to pass.

We are rebels and thus we want immediate solutions to our problems. We tend to demand things from God, and one of the things we often want is an immediate end to our problems. God’s process tries our patience. The believer should realize that the process is just as important as the end, because both can produce a greater holiness. Rather than railing against the process, let the process produce in you perseverance.

It is the nature of our indwelling “flesh” to desire to be in control of both the outcomes and the timing. Even after we have been saved, our flesh cries out for control. The believer must, therefore, SUBMIT to God daily and TRUST the Lord as an act of the will. Trust God in the process.

Suffering and waiting are the instruments in God’s process which He uses to teach us perseverance. In our natural state, we are all impatient, but when God saves us, He places His Spirit inside us and gives us both the desire and the ability to increase our patience. Therefore in the midst of suffering and waiting, I should focus on the Lord Jesus and realize that He waited and He suffered perfectly (Hebrews 5:8) and He has given me an example that I should follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21ff).

BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF PATIENCE OR IMPATIENCE: Job, David (fleeing from Saul), Joseph, Abraham

APPLICATION: DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY. TRUST GOD COMPLETELY. You are a creature and have a very finite perspective on how God’s process is unfolding. As a human being, you also cannot see the end that God has in mind. God is in complete control of every process and has already determined every outcome. In God’s infinitely complex order of things there are no unknowns. He is master of all things and His timing is perfect for His intended outcome.
ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR DESIRED OUTCOME IS NOT NECESSARILY GOD’S DETERMINED OUTCOME.
ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR TIMING IS NOT NECESSARILY GOD’S TIMING.
ALLOW THE TESTING PROCESS TO INCREASE YOUR PATIENCE AND TO INCREASE YOUR THANKFULNESS. In the midst of the deepest trial, give thanks to the Lord for His abundant goodness and praise Him for all He has done. (RMB 6/8/2015)

(For a slightly fuller treatment of this subject, see the separate page on this WordPress site called “God’s Process and Our Patience.”)

(This series of writings was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18

One of the ironic features of American Christianity is that despite living in the most affluent society in the history of the world, there is a general lack of thankfulness even among believers in America. I find this glaring flaw present in my own life, as well, and am very convicted by it. Living in great abundance and with every need supplied, there is little evidence of thanks in the prayers and the conversations of even committed, genuine believers. Listen to the prayers of American Christians and you may hear some token thanks given for general things, but sincere and heart-felt thanks for the amazing spiritual and material blessings that the Lord has showered on them is usually absent. Again, I know that I am guilty of this and so I may be projecting this on others, but I don’t think so. I think it may be a trait of fallen humanity that the more that we have materially, the less thankful we are. So I have made a commitment to be more thankful and to have vital, deep thanksgiving become a regular part of my prayers and my conversations.

To help me in this endeavor, I am in the process of writing a series of blogs about what I call “the enemies of thankfulness,” prompted by John MacArthur’s excellent teaching on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 about the Christian’s responsibility to be thankful at all times and in all circumstances. And why is not easy for the Christian to be thankful? One reason is that there are enemies to our thankfulness that we need to combat as we grow in our sanctification. So far in this series I have talked about the enemies of DOUBT, SELFISHNESS and WORLDLINESS. This blog will address the enemy of thankfulness known as “A CRITICAL SPIRIT.”

As we embark on this topic of a critical spirit, I am tempted to write a lot about this enemy, because this is the sinful pattern in my own life that most smothers my thankfulness. Of the five enemies of thankfulness that we will discuss, this is the problem that most points at me. But before I confess too much and reveal my own weaknesses, I need to define what I mean by a critical spirit. Then the behaviors of a critical person need to be identified. Next we need to see why this chokes the life out of thankfulness, and finally we need to take some action to overcome this problem.

So what is a critical spirit, exactly? A critical spirit is the tendency to have a critical response to every event in your life. The default is to say, “Yeah, but . . .” Nothing is ever good enough, but always falls short of your too-high standards. The first place your mind goes in any evaluation is to what is wrong with the situation. You identify all the things that were less than perfect and have a hard time ever getting to what was good about a performance. The one with the critical spirit is an analyzer who inspects everything to find out what is wrong with it. We see this in the children of Israel as they came out of Egypt. Gripped by a critical spirit, they liked the food in Egypt better than the manna that the Lord had given them out of heaven. The Lord satisfied them with the heavenly manna, but then they wanted quail instead. They complained about the leadership and they complained about the direction in which they were going. They were critical of everything. This is the critical spirit.

Perhaps giving some of my own personal challenges will help those with a critical spirit identify themselves so they can confess their sin to the Lord and get the Holy Spirit to help them change. My personality is that of an “ANALYZER.” This means that I automatically seek out problems by examining data or situations. I seek problems and feel a sense of victory when I have found one. “Look! Here is the problem!” So my personality orients me to feel good when I have found the flaws and the problems. Now this can be good in some contexts, but the challenge is that this orientation carries over into all areas of my life. I criticize my wife and my children because their performance is not perfect. I ‘helpfully’ tell Lisa, “O, sweetheart, here is your problem!” Rarely is my wife excited by my discovery of her flaws. And that leads to another related tendency, which is that of being a perfectionist. Everyone must live up to my expectations and all people are subject to my judgment. Can you see how arrogant and how irritating this would be? Not only that, but this critical spirit and this constant judging over time will make a person hard and cynical, since they are always disappointed by other people’s ‘failures.’ Well, this critical spirit is a sinful behavior and needs to be identified and rooted out. My desire for righteousness must drive me to change and the Holy Spirit will give me the ability to change, but I first must recognize my need to change. Is a critical spirit choking out your thankfulness?

For the one with a critical spirit, thankfulness is smothered because nothing is deemed worthy of thanksgiving. The critic sees every good gift from God as coming with flaws that need to be fixed. Why be thankful if everything is flawed and is in need of fixing? Since the critical person starts by expecting perfection and then sees all the flaws, there is no room for thankfulness.

How can this critical spirit be defeated? The first step has already been mentioned, and that is acknowledging this as a sinful behavior pattern. Not only does being critical make us unthankful, but it also causes us to view our fellow human beings with disdain and contempt. An attitude where I am the judge and everyone (including God?) has to live up to my expectations will ruin your relationships with others and will make it difficult to love those whom you are called to love. So first, acknowledge that being critical is sinful behavior. Next, change your expectations AND your perspective. Instead of viewing everything that is not perfect (according to your standards) as a failure, view everything that is done with genuine effort and that shows progress as a success. View everything that is above a zero as a success instead of seeing everything that is not perfect as a failure. Third, thank God for everything that He gives and spend time seeing all the amazing ways that God is involved in blessing every one of your days. Realize that all that God does is perfect and all His gifts are good and perfect. he does not give us what we deserve, but gives us out of His abundant goodness and limitless grace. Finally, let your expectations of others remain low and spend time encouraging others rather than criticizing and judging others, and let your expectations of what God will do remain high and pray that he will hear your voice. Praise others for what they can accomplish and praise God for what He does give. Refuse to criticize and instead practice praise and thanksgiving. (RMB 5/22/15)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
“For just as (when you were unsaved) you presented you members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, . . . so now (that you are saved) present your members as slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:19

The person who is in Christ and who has been born again (born from above) has gone through a radical conversion that has utterly changed everything about the person. The one who is in Christ is a new creation or a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul either means that this person is part of an entirely new creation where the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, is King, or he means that this person is new and has completely been remade to have a new beginning and an entirely new life. Or maybe he means both, but the point is that all things are new. And with this new birth come new affections and new desires. The old lustful desires have been cut off from their life source and are in the process of dying, and the new affections and desires are growing in strength.

For the new believer there is a DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that was not there before. Where before there was a lust for all manner of rebellion and filthiness and sin, now there is a desire to know the will of God and a hunger to behave in a righteous manner. The believer has a strong DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that forces the believer to make behavioral and attitudinal changes. Oftentimes these changes are radical and significantly affect the course of life, but this is what the LORD DEMANDS OF HIS DISCIPLES. The Bible reveals to us what the Lord demands from us and tells us the requirements of true obedience and then the Holy Spirit convicts us of specific areas of sin in our life that need to be changed and gives us the power (Acts 1:8) to make those changes.

For example, I am commanded to be thankful. The Scripture is clear about this. Therefore, if there are things in my past or things in my personality; if there are behaviors or attitudes or habits; if there are prejudices or ideas that feed the enemies of thankfulness or that cause me to be unthankful, I must do what it takes by the power of the Spirit to change them. My desire for obedience and my desire to please the Lord compel me to change. (RMB 5/21/15)

Sometimes I think to myself, “What separates me from any unbeliever and makes me different and set apart? Yes, I am a follower of Jesus, but does anything in my life blare out that I am completely committed to the Lord Jesus?” In light of these sorts of musings, I wanted to continue a blog of a series of such questions to challenge me and my fellow believers to live radically for Jesus.

Challenge Questions 2: If you profess to be a Christian, how does being a Christian affect your daily life? How has being a follower of Jesus Christ changed or affected your life? In other words, are there major crossroads in your life that are marked by a decision to choose the Lord’s way and not man’s? What looks different about your life as a follower of Jesus than what your life would look like if you were not a follower of Jesus? If you were not a follower of Jesus, would there be anything different about your life, about what you did with your time or about how you made decisions or about how you viewed the future or how you viewed the world?

Think about these questions and try to give answers. I think these questions all have the common theme of begging the question, “What difference does Jesus make in your life and what difference has He made in your life?” How would you answer that question? What if an unbeliever to whom you were explaining the gospel asked you this question? What would you tell him / her? Surely our testimony should declare the excellencies of Christ and of how He has radically changed us. Consider how you can tell of the changes Jesus has made in your life as part of your salvation testimony.  (RMB 5/20/2015)

Sometimes I think to myself, “What separates me from any unbeliever? Yes, I am a follower of Jesus, but does anything in my life blare out that I am completely committed to the Lord Jesus?” In light of these sorts of musings, I wanted to blog a series of such questions to challenge me and my fellow believers to live radically for Jesus.

Challenge Questions 1: Would you risk being considered a fool for Jesus’ sake? That is, would you be willing for people to consider your actions odd or strange if it brought you into contact with unbelievers and opened a door for a conversation about Jesus? Would you risk being rejected and ridiculed if you could present the gospel to a lost person? Are you willing to tell the gospel to an unbeliever, knowing that, unless the Holy Spirit opens the person’s eyes and heart, the gospel is foolishness to them, because these ideas are spiritually appraised, and that you would sound like a fool to that unbeliever? Have you ever been a fool or felt like a fool in front of other people because you were bold for Jesus Christ?

Think about these questions. Of course, I am not talking here about intentionally acting like a fool or purposefully making a fool of yourself. That is the last thing that I personally would want to do. But are we willing to take the risk that we will be thought odd or fanatical or brainless or out of touch when we tell the world about Jesus? That is the question. Am I willing to experience discomfort and awkwardness and even ridicule or hostility because I speak out about Jesus?

RMB 5/19/2015

I noticed something in reading the accounts of Jesus’ life. After His temptation in the wilderness, He goes to Galilee and begins His earthly ministry. “Repent!” he declares and then He selects His first disciples. But what I observed was this: the very first thing that Jesus says to His very first disciples is, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) Fishers of men: That means that he calls them to call others. Jesus calls them to be evangelists.

In Luke 5, Jesus is again by the Sea of Galilee teaching and He helps Peter bring in a huge catch of fish. Peter is astounded, realizing that this ordinary looking man is none other than the Messiah and the Son of God. This Jesus is God in human flesh and Simon Peter is overwhelmed as he falls down before Jesus in an act of worship. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But Jesus says, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men (Luke 5:11).” Catching men means Peter will be calling others to follow Jesus.

In Mark’s account, the same thing takes place, as Jesus calls His disciples and they leave everything to follow Him. “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men (Mark 1:17).” This is the first command He gives them, and fishers of men they become.

Observe that the first thing Jesus told His disciples was that they would become “fishers of men.” What does this mean except that they will be His witnesses and they will be evangelists for Him. They will be heralds of the gospel and will be casting out the gospel net to bring men and women into the Kingdom of God. It is key to notice that this is the very first thing that Jesus commands His disciples. From the very start, from the instant of their calling, it is clear that part of their calling included being a witness and an evangelist for the Lord Jesus. It was part of their responsibility as followers of Jesus to tell others about Him and to “proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9).” That’s just part of the calling. You will tell others about Jesus.

Now if the first thing that Jesus told His first disciples was that they would be fishers of men, what does that mean to us today? If the first thing Jesus told His first disciples was that they would be fishers of men, then the first thing that a new believer today should be taught is to fish for men. The new believer should be expected to share their faith with others so that they can be fishers of men. If the first thing that Jesus told His disciples was that they would become fishers of men, we should tell our new disciples that they are to be fishers of men.

SUMMARY: In the Bible, the Christian life is compared to that of a soldier: 2 Timothy 2:4 “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” The church needs to once again be filled with men and women willing to risk greatly so that the name of Jesus may be glorified. There need to be more soldiers. How do we become soldiers?

THE BODY OF THE BLOG: The challenge for the modern follower of Jesus Christ is that the church has largely lost its sense of mission and has lost track of the fact that we have been called by the Lord to a specific task that He has given us, namely to be His witnesses, and that we have been called to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19; Luke 5:11) and ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). This stance of passivity and inactivity by the church leads to confusion in the new believer or in the zealous convert. Why confusion? The new believer or the zealous Christian is frustrated and confused, because the overriding attitude in the church is that Christians are simply to go to church and be nice and do nothing more, but those who are new to the Holy Spirit’s fire or who are intoxicated by that fire long for godly adventures. Indeed, as we examine the New Testament and as we observe the lives of the apostles and of the early saints in the infant Church, we read words like diligence and perseverance and endurance and striving and labor and hardship and suffering. These radical labors and activities of the early saints are in stark contrast to the listless and innocuous lives and the timid efforts displayed by many, even most, professing believers today in the American church.

So in order to combat this trend I want to ask some questions and make some comments to spur us on to serious love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Since we are soldiers, it must mean that we are in a war. The Lord would not recruit soldiers if there were not a war to be fought. And if there is a war, there must also be an enemy. In fact, we know that we are in a war (2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:10-17) and we know that we have an enemy, the devil (1 Peter 5:8; etc.), who also has a host of other demons which oppose us. Here then are some thoughts and questions for my fellow soldiers.

Is the enemy aware that you are his enemy? That is, does the devil even know for sure that you are his enemy and are vigorously opposed to his activity? Has the devil seen you damage his kingdom often enough to know that you are his adversary and are a serious threat or can he ignore you with impunity?

Are the forces of evil actively trying to take you down? When the demons get together to plan their battle strategy, does your name come up as a strategic target to eliminate?

Are you dangerous to the devil? The question is not, “Are you frightened of the devil?” The key question is, “Is the devil afraid of you?” Are you a soldier of the cross who strikes fear into the hearts of the demons?

Can you inflict damage on the devil’s dark kingdom with your spiritual weapons of our warfare? These are divinely powerful for the destruction of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), but they must be wielded with skill by the believer to inflict damage. Does your prayer pull down strongholds? Does your proclamation of the truth rattle the gates of hell? Does your witness for Jesus dispel the darkness?

Does the enemy want to silence you or are you already silent? What good is a herald who will not proclaim the message he was sent to proclaim? What good is an ambassador who does not announce his King’s good news? What is the value of a witness who does not testify?

It is said of the idols that they have mouths but they cannot speak (Psalm 115:5; 135:16). Of course they cannot speak, because they are nothing but dead idols, the work of men’s hands. But let it never be said of the Christian that he has a mouth, but he will not speak. Let it never be said of the disciple of Jesus that he has a mouth, but he does not know his message. O brethren, we have mouths and we MUST speak! (2 Corinthians 4:13) The Lord has given us a message and woe to us if we do not proclaim the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16). We must be Christians who are bold to tell of Jesus and who wield our spiritual weapons with skill and precision gained from years of diligent use and practice. Let us be soldiers who do damage to Satan’s kingdom and who cause fear among the ranks of the evil ones. (RMB 5/14/2015)
“I want to so live that Satan throws a party when he hears of my death.”

(This series of writings on the “Enemies of Thankfulness” was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18

Before this series is over, I am hoping to write about five “Enemies of Thankfulness.” These five enemies are Doubt, Selfishness, Worldliness, having a Critical spirit and Impatience with God’s timing. Whenever any one of these five enemies begins to rear its ugly head and begins to choke out your thankfulness, the believer should intentionally and immediately begin to extol the mighty works of the Lord and thank Him for His gracious gifts. This should become a reflex for the believer: when thanklessness and coldness and a feeling of ingratitude appear, the believer should automatically begin to praise the Lord and to give Him thanks.
Thanking the Lord and praising the Lord always increases joy and hope and intensifies our light for Christ and heats up the Spirit’s flame, but falling victim to any one of these enemies of thankfulness always decreases joy, dims your light for Christ and dampens the Holy Spirit’s fire in your life.
So develop the habit of giving thanks and praise to the Lord whenever your joy begins to waver and experience how your spirit revives. “In everything, give thanks.”