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1 Timothy 4:4
For everything God created is good, and nothing
is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving...
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November
29 Receiving in Thanksgiving
When God created the world, after each day He
looked at what He had done and declared that it
was good. Only after man sinned did things
in the world become corrupt and less than good.
As Paul writes to Timothy, his instructions
are that nothing in itself is bad in and of
itself. Anything that we receive we should
do so with thanksgiving because God gave it to
us.
Unfortunately this doesn't mean that good
things can't be used in bad ways and we must
make this distinction. Offering thanks for
something that we intend to use in a sinful
manner doesn't make it acceptable to use.
We don't know what purpose everything has but we
know of bad purposes for some things. For
instance, God has a purpose for marijuana and as
it is created, it is good. But many people
use this in a way that God did not intend and
offering thanks for it doesn't make this any
more acceptable.
Whatever we receive, we should recognize it
as a gift from God. If it is a gift from
God, we can expect two things from it.
First, it is to be used for God's glory because
that's what gifts are for. And second, it
is a good gift because God did not give us bad
ones. |
