Receive everything good with holy thanksgiving.

 

God wants us to receive every good thing with thanksgiving. The way to recognize whether something is “good” or “bad” is to ask ourselves if we are comfortable to thank the Lord for it. Those things on offer for which it is unthinkable to thank the Lord for, should be rejected. The thief cannot thank the Lord for what he stole and should not steal. The corrupt cannot thank the Lord for what he swindled and should seek integrity.

 

1 Tim 4: 4 – 5: “Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

 

We must understand that nothing that God gives to us, because he loves us, should be rejected. And here is the exciting and surprising of this text: whatever is received from the Lord with thanksgiving becomes "consecrated by God’s Word and prayer”.

 

Consecration refers to persons or things being set apart for God, to belong to him and to serve his purpose.

Everything received from the Lord with thanksgiving, continue to belong to God.
And what have been consecrated, are sacred.

In the Old Testament the people of Israel were set apart to be God’s holy people (Ex. 19:5,6; Deut. 7:6; 14:2). So were the priests (Ex. 29:1-37), the altar (Num. 7:10-88), the utensils used by the priests (2 Sam. 8:11), and the Temple (1 Kings 8:63; Ezra 6:16-18), to name only a few.

 

In the New Testament all God’s people are set apart too. All Christian believers are consecrated by Word and prayer to serve our Lord as royal priests every day of their lives.

Food, marriage and family life, work and play, responsibility, money, and fun, should all be received with thanksgiving and set apart, be given back to God, to serve his purpose in our lives and as such serve his Kingdom. Everything we receive from God with thanksgiving, is consecrated.

It is holy. We are to use every good blessing in our service of God.

 

Ultimately, never skip a day to thank the Lord for grace, mercy, salvation, forgiveness, for Jesus, his cross, his resurrection, for giving us his Spirit and for eternal life.

We thank our Lord daily for these awesome gifts as we use God’s blessings to celebrate his glory.