The perfect recipe

I feel like as of late, well all of 2020, people have been trying to figure out what works best. How do we prevent COVID-19? How do we make it known that black lives matter? How do we figure out who is the best presidential candidate?

Those are only some of the issues and concerns that we have all had to deal with this year. 

To be completely honest, I don’t any of these things have even been close to being resolved. It’s trial and error over and over again. 

I came across some scripture in 1 Thessalonians this afternoon that really got me thinking to myself...this is the perfect recipe.

“Rejoice always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

“Pray continually.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

“Give thanks in all circumstances.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

These short and very brief statements make up three bible verses because they’re that significant. 

Let me walk you through this...imagine waking up and throughout the entire day, you rejoice about everything. You rejoice about the fact that you woke up in the morning. (Regardless of the time) You rejoice driving to work. You rejoice all the good and all the bad things that happen. You rejoice when someone makes you happy and you rejoice when someone cuts you off on your drive home. You rejoice at the responsibilities that you have when you make it home from work, etc. Seriously though, think about how much happier we would be if we rejoice more often. The more we rejoice, the more that others know that there is a difference about us, and when people notice a positive difference, that often inspires action. 

Now picture this, imagine praying continually. No I don’t mean praying on your knees all day long..that would be impossible. But what is possible though is to have a prayerful attitude at all times. This attitude is built upon acknowledging and dependence on God, realizing his presence within us and determining to obey him fully. Then we will find it natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer but should be an outgrowth of those times. Having a prayerful attitude will change your life. 

Lastly, we must thank God in all circumstances. Notice, Paul didn’t write that we should thank God for everything that happens to us, but in everything. Evil does not come from God, so we should not thank him for it. But when evil strikes, we can still be thankful for God’s presence and for the good that he will accomplish through the distress. 

When you think about this perfect recipe, is it something you want to make sure that you implement into your daily life? Or are you going to try and continually figure things out on your own? 

My encouragement to you is to implement it. Your life will seriously chance when you begin to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.