Title 《Gratitude of the Deep Night》 (July 3)
Contents
Title: Deep Night's Gratitude
Bible: Acts 16:25-34
(…) Today is Thanksgiving Day. A church is a place of a thousand mirrors. The gratitude in my heart is reflected in a thousand mirrors. So try it. "God! Thank you unconditionally.” What would you like to thank? The apostle Paul… “Christians are grateful people. Be grateful and live by force. Those who give thanks become happy.” (…) Today, let’s consider the gratitude of Paul and Silas.
(1) I thanked him in the deep night prison.
Paul and Silas healed the maidservant, but instead of saying thank you, it was a harsh rod and a prison. It was understandable to complain and complain, but I praised and thanked him. 2,000 years ago, prisons would have been the worst places. In this place where beatings, swear words and screams are likely to occur, the jailer caresses the prisoner's wounds and the despised prisoner hears the teacher. There, new Christians are born, and God's righteous evangelist receives warm hospitality and comfort in the jailer's house. The worst places have become the best places. The worst has become the best. The power of creation to turn the worst times that are difficult to bear into the best times is in gratitude.(…)
(2) He taught us to be thankful even by force.
(…) God brought the hardened people from slavery in Egypt out of Egypt. The people became refugees in the wilderness. God has given the law to those who are suffering as they pass through places where there is no shade of trees, no water, and no shore to rest.(…) When you keep the feasts before God, don't come empty-handed to the people of the wilderness, but use your strength as you have blessed them. He commanded us to give a voluntary gift that counts. You are to offer it with your children, your slaves, your slaves, the Levites who live in your city, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows. Gratitude is taught by God. You have made gratitude a habit. He commanded us to live with gratitude.
⑶ The deep night of gratitude becomes a tool to conquer Satan.
Paul and Silas did good things, but they ended up in prison. The way things are these days is that Paul and Silas must first find evidence that what they did was a good thing. We also need to find eyewitnesses. But the world does not know that he is possessed by a demon. Paul could not find any eyewitnesses. Then you will have to sue the other party for innocence and defamation. In the process of stating that each other is 'right', hatred arises and emotions are heightened. Facts that don't exist come out as facts, and the facts disappear because they have no legal evidence. The facts are distorted. This is the history of the devil. Paul and Silas overcame the work of Satan with thanks and praise. To be thankful for everything means to believe in God's providence and guidance in every event (…). Only true gratitude is true blessing. A blessing that cannot thank the Lord is not a blessing. True victory is not conquest. not owned. Endless thanks. Amen