THE SUPERNATURAL HABITS, PAUL & NUALA O'HIGGINS [red novels .txt] 📗

thank God for life, for redemption, for Jesus and His work for us, for the covenant we have with Him, for the destiny He has given us and for His Fatherly care in everything. “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thess. 5:18)
The Redemption - the work that Jesus did for us by His cross, resurrection and ascension - is the basis of the believer’s thanksgiving. This is what separates the thanksgiving of believers from all other kinds of thanksgiving. It is not simply a polite acknowledgment of a benefit received. It is an act by which we return our lives to their true center. Thanksgiving is related to the atonement in a special way. We thank God that:
• our sins are atoned through Jesus and we are reconciled to God
• the curse has been removed and sin and oppression have lost their dominion over us
• we have received the Holy Spirit
• we are new creations, and adopted sons of God
• we are commissioned and equipped to go into the world as he went into the world, and
• because of Jesus, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, and our whole life is in covenant relationship with God and with His keeping power.
Throughout all eternity we will be thanking God for the blood of Jesus the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world.
We are eternally indebted to Him, eternally grateful to Him and eternally appreciative of this awesome gift. We certainly did not deserve this amazing grace – we can only acknowledge it with thanksgiving and humble gratitude.
This thanksgiving for creation and redemption separates the believer’s thanksgiving from the mere positive thinking of psychology. It is the basis of all faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God; for whoever comes to Him must believe that God EXISTS and is the REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Thanksgiving is simply our faith acknowledging reality. By it we orient ourselves correctly to the Source of all reality. The more we cultivate gratitude for our redemption and for Him as a person the more we will experience His love and the more our hearts will be aligned to Him and His way.

Sacrifice of Praise
With thanksgiving we recall and remember Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice for us, and as we do this we activate its reality afresh in our lives. “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” (Hebrews 13:15)
Since Christ has died for our sins, there remains no more sacrifice for sin except the sacrifice of praise (thanksgiving) by which we acknowledge and appropriate the blessings God has provided.
This is why the communion service of the church is often called “Eucharist” or “Thanksgiving Service”. The communion service is one of the ways we offer the sacrifice of praise for the once-for-all sacrifice. Here we take bread and wine to recall the death and resurrection of Jesus, His atonement for us, as an act of thanks. As we give thanks for this amazing gift we activate and appropriate its benefits afresh. To remember and give thanks ‘worthily’ is to give thanks, consciously realizing and remembering the meaning and effects of what He has done for us.

Thanking God for all His Benefits
“Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good
for his mercies endure forever”. (Ps. 107:1)
This was the great song of the priests in the Temple days and is the great praise of believers of all generations.
“Give thanks to the Lord for his mercies are new every morning.” (La. 3.23)
“Give thanks to the Lord who daily loads us with benefits.” (Ps. 68:19)
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” (Isa. 12:3)
Through thanksgiving for the atoning sacrifice we approach God and receive His mercies at all our points of need. Through it we recognize that nothing we are or have is due to us alone. It is only through His mercy that we continue to exist and it is only through His mercy that we are sustained spiritually, morally and physically.

Thanksgiving & Pride
Pride is the attitude of not acknowledging or not receiving God’s mercies.
Presumption is the attitude of not recognizing our need of His mercies. Failure to thank is, therefore, an expression of both presumption and pride.
Pride is the root of all sin and the source of all separation from God and His care. Thanksgiving is the perfect antidote to pride, because it keeps us in the position of acknowledging, celebrating and continuously receiving God’s mercies.
As priests of the Most High God, it is our happy and glorious responsibility to thank Him in everything, and for everything. Believers are members of ‘The Perpetual Celebration Society’ because they are people who continually give thanks.
With thanksgiving we acknowledge and draw to ourselves all the mercies God makes available to us in His promises. Through it we also position ourselves to continue in the benefits He has already given us. Every breath we take, every quality of spiritual, physical, intellectual and moral health is a gift from Him. Every blessing and ability to bless others is a gift from Him. If He were to withdraw His mercies we would cease to function spiritually, mentally, morally and financially. Through thanksgiving we acknowledge that indeed all these blessings are expressions of His mercy and not of our ingenuity. The supernaturally empowered believer never ceases to ask God to have mercy on him and to never withdraw His mercies from him.
“Have mercy on me Lord and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51) If He should withdraw His hand and mercy from us we would collapse in every way.
Veteran Bible Teacher Arthur Burt recalls that, during The Second World War, when he was working as an evangelist, he persistently refused the military draft. In 1943 he was brought before a tribunal in London where they mocked and ridiculed him. “I believe God has given me a word to be what I am, where I am”, he explained to them.
‘Oh so you have a golden telephone and are in touch with the Almighty?’ they mocked, ‘We’ll see about that!’ Then they sentenced him to prison for contempt of court!
While in prison he became irritated with one of the other prisoners who was a chronic smoker. The smoker continually asked Arthur to give him his ration of cigarettes for which Arthur had no use. “One day”, Arthur recalls, “he irritated me so much I just blew my top. I was wrong but I shouted ‘Shut up and leave me alone!’”
Then God dealt with Arthur: “How dare you speak to that man like that. You are no different. You are just like him and you smoke like a chimney.”
“But Lord, I don’t smoke,” Arthur objected.
“Yes you do,” he corrected, “what keeps you from smoking is my grace. If I remove my grace, you will be exactly as bad as that man. It is my grace in you that has delivered you from the habit. Don’t attribute to your character that which is a work of my grace.”
Arthur learnt in a deep way that we are all completely sinful apart from God’s keeping mercy. Our spiritual, moral and physical health (even when we don’t recognize it) would crumble to ruin apart from His presence. The supernaturally empowered believer knows that he owes everything he has, and everything he is, to someone who deserves his constant thanks and recognition.

Thanksgiving brings Increase
One of the greatest miracles in the gospels is the healing of ten lepers by Jesus. Nothing like this had ever happened since time began. After He healed them He told them to go to the Temple and show themselves to the priest so that they could be accepted back in Jewish society. All ten went on their way rejoicing but only one came back to give thanks for the miracle. The one who returned received a second miracle - he was “made whole”. The parts of his body that the leprosy had eaten were restored in a creative miracle (Luke 17:12-19).
When we give thanks and acknowledge what we have received we actually open our hearts to receive even more. “To him who has will more be given and he will have abundance.” (Mt. 13:12)

Thank Others
Supernaturally empowered believers not only acknowledge God with thanks but also acknowledge all the channels God uses to bless and help them.
This is why it is only reasonable that we thank God not only for what He has given to us directly but for all the people He has used to help us: parents, educators, school friends, mentors, pastors, preachers, doctors, maintenance men - the thousands of people who have formed a human chain to cause us to be alive today. As for me, even the bread on my table today, the shirt on my back and the home I live in have come to me through a complex matrix of services and planners, from manufacturing systems, agricultural systems, transportation systems, banking systems and political systems that involve literally millions of people. I am aware that the fact that I am writing on this computer, sitting on this chair, in my home, is the result of a network of services and people that form a human chain that enable me to do what I am doing today. “No man is an island …. each man is part of the main” (John Donne, “No Man is an Island”). Failure to acknowledge our debt to other humans is sheer blindness and is the epitome of arrogance. How much we take for granted!
Without the habit of thanksgiving we act as if everything were our right, and we complain like spoiled children. The truth is that we are debtors to everyone. It is not possible to thank everyone for everything or to even notice everything that everyone does for us. The person who flows in thanksgiving and humility recognizes that he is swimming in a sea of God’s mercies. These mercies come to us directly from God and indirectly through hosts of people. Acknowledging people with thanks and recognition relates us to them in a healthy and right way.

Thanking God for all Men
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, Godly and respectful in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
We can’t begin to pray until we begin to acknowledge our linkage and debt to all human beings. We are debtors to all men and so we thank God for every one of them and recognize our debt to them. We do not agree with everything that everyone does but we know that God uses everything and everyone for our good when we acknowledge Him.
Unthankfulness is the breeding ground for negativity. It is the gateway for discouragement, self-pity, unforgiveness, bitterness, frustration, envy, and covetousness.
Unthankfulness is like a shade we pull down that shuts out the sunlight and leaves us in the darkness of self-absorption, selfishness and self-pity.
Thankfulness, on the other hand, is like pulling back a curtain, which opens a window to the goodness and blessings of God and to all that is positive and good.
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these