Most men place their greatest emphases upon the here and now. Paul knew that life truly began at the moment man leaves his body to be present with the Lord.
Death is the departure of the soul and spirit from the body, but where does each part of man end up after a man dies? The Bible answers this question and more.
The Bible offers two circumstances to truly define death: the departure of the soul (Genesis 35:18) and the departure of the spirit (Genesis 25:8).
Trials, afflictions, and heartaches may presently abound, but those who know the Lord rejoice, knowing that those things only exist for a season.
God offers no account of anyone (apart from Jesus Christ) who ever suffered quite like Job. Job in many ways serves as an example for believers today.
Few people grasp the purposes or the benefits of suffering affliction. Instead, most individuals place a great premium upon trying to avoid troubles of any kind.
The means by which any individual seeks and finds pleasure exposes the condition of his heart. The Bible points to those who find pleasure in rioting, while others in backbiting or carnality, and yet others in selfish indulgences. At first, the individual tries to hide his carnal pleasures. As these things become more amusing to the carnal Christian, he begins to do them in the open, or as the scripture says, “in the day time.” All these things point to a cold heart toward the ways of God and a warming toward the things of the world. Yet, the people of God should find pleasure in spiritual things such as Bible reading, talking with the Lord, singing His praises, fellowshipping with like-minded believers, and witnessing to others of God’s goodness.
We are promised that the word of God works effectually in those that believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Yet, the Devil works hard to choke out the fruitfulness of the word. In order to achieve his ultimate objective, the Devil uses any means within his arsenal. Pleasure-seeking serves as one of his choicest weapons. In order to convince people that they do not need the Lord or His word, the Devil convinces people that they have everything they could possibly ever want or need without Him. The Devil convinces them that they are happy or satisfied and there is nothing better than their lot in life. He keeps them preoccupied so that they do not take time to reflect and recognize that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17) apart from the Lord.
Men should willingly give thanks “for all things” (Ephesians 5:20), but today's passage teaches a somewhat different truth: men should give thanks “in every thing.” The subtle differences between these two truths turn out to be quite profound. They express two different facets of the Christian's call to give thanks: give thanks to God for all things, but our thanks should take place in the midst of all things, good and bad. This means that we should not simply give God thanks once a certain trial of life has ended, but the thankfulness should take place while these trials are ongoing. Very few believers seem to recognize the importance of giving thanks for trials, but even fewer seem willing to give that thanks during the heat of the trial. Why is this so important? God says that the giving of this thanks, even in the midst of trials, is God’s will for our lives.
Our heartfelt giving of thanks should always coincide with our prayers to God. Today's passage from Philippians confirms this truth, as do a host of other passages (Daniel 6:10; Ephesians 1:16; Colossians 1:3; Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 2:1). However, an unthankful spirit always affects one's prayer life eventually developing into a vicious repetitive cycle. A lack of prayer instills a lack of thankfulness. Those who fail to be thankful, fail to cultivate a consistent prayer life. Fortunately, this lack of thankfulness exposes our true problem which is a heart lacking humility. As our heart fills with pride, we fail to realize the goodness of God and our need to continually seek His face with this spirit of thankfulness. The solution involves conditioning ourselves to have a prayer life consisting of a genuine time of thanksgiving. True thankfulness should eliminate many of the prayers consisting of nothing but self-serving desires.
