thanksgiving snowballs

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Quotes from Seeking the Face of God by Gary Thomas

Chapter 5 - Joyful Surrender: Christian Submission

The Two Essential Questions:
Is God good?
Is God Lord?

"Both the goodness and providence of God are well established in Scripture, but both are questioned today: "If God is so good, why does He allow evil things to happen?" and "If God is in control, why is the world such a mess?" Until we resolve these two questions in our own minds, we will find ourselves at virtual war with God."

"...maturity will eventually require that we come to this conclusion: "Yes, God is good, and yes, God is Lord." Until we have done that, the intimacy of surrender simply will not be possible."

"Many of us carry wounds that need to be healed before we can embrace these two truths... Whatever the case, we should do what we must do so we can resolve these two fundamental questions without delay. The scrapper in each of us must be retired."

"There will likely be a time in our Christian journeys when, like Jacob, we will wrestle with God all night long. That night may last for months or even years. But there must eventually come a dawn when we say, "OK, God, You win. You've broken me and I'm Yours. No more fighting. No more complaining. Lead me where You will. Not my will but Thine be done."

"The biggest block to our surrender is not our appetites and wayward desires, but our addiction to running our own lives."

"Thomas a Kempis said, "The love of thyself doth hurt thee more than anything in the world.""

"We need to understand the seriousness of rebellion. When we refuse God in the big things, He will move to the small. When we refuse to give God even these, what else can He ask? We have then approached the land of apostasy, and all the spiritual disciplines in the world, all the beautiful songs we sing, and all the money we give away won't excuse the fact that our hearts are in rebellion."

"Christian surrender means the death of complaining."

"I learned that faith isn't tested by how often God answers my prayers with a yes, but by my willingness to continue serving Him and thanking Him, even when I don't have a clue as to what He is doing."

"Thanksgiving became my doorway to a more mature surrender. When I began to fight my sin of complaining with thanksgiving, the opposing virtue, this was a struggle for me. But God in His mercy placed gratitude in my heart, and like a snowball rolling down a hill, that gift of gratitude grew until the complaining was wiped out."

"When God birthed thanksgiving in my heart, my purest cry was simply, "God, I want to be on your side." My only request was to be wherever God was. If God was in riches or poverty, sickness or health, at home or far away, I wanted to be there. Whatever God was doing, that's what I wanted to be doing. Nothing else mattered."

"Rebellion means war, so it is no surprise that surrender means peace."

Chapter 4 quotes here and here.
(You can follow the link trail to prior chapter notes from there.)

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