gratitude – Dancing In The Kingdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 15 – Reforming our Souls

Discipline of Service

[Bible references: Deuteronomy 10:12; Psalm 126:5-6; Matthew 5:16; 10:42; 20:28; 25:22-23; Mark 10:43-44; Luke 22:27; John 4:34; 13:14; 27:4; Acts 20:9, 24; I Corinthians 3:9; 12:7; Ephesians 4:4-8; 6:7; Philippians 2:7; 1 Timothy 6:18; Titus 2:7; Hebrews 10:24; James 2:17-18; 1 Peter 2:12; 4:11]

To belong to Christ is to belong to His Body, all those who belong him. All who believe in Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit gives spiritual gifts to all who belong to him, gifts that are designed for the building up of His body. This automatically calls us then to be serving others within the Body of Christ.

Change the diapers

Once we are in Christ, by virtue of the gifts He has given to us, we become responsible to Him and therefore to His Body, to use the gifts we are given. This does not mean, however, that we are not obligated to serve outside the scope of the particular spiritual gifts he has given us. For example, if we have a baby, we are obligated to change the diapers even if “it’s not our gift.” It’s merely what we’re called to do. The point is that belonging to Jesus is to belong to His Body and to be a part of an enterprise that began long before we were born and will continue after we die. To be part of that Body is to have a function in that Body.

Different services

To each of us, whatever possessions or gifts we have, all belong to God, and we are stewards of whatever He has given. Jesus declared, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). Since to be in Him is to become like Him, we should also have that same attitude of service. A part of developing this attitude is to develop a sense of humility, beginning with the realization that God is holy and that we all deserve His wrath for rebelling against Him, but by His love and grace He has rescued us from the full consequence of our rebellion, and has instead chosen to give us great blessings. It is out of gratitude that we can respond and give back by serving Him, and therefore His Body. The difficulty is, that in this time of “Already and Not Yet” we need to be intentional about dealing with the sin in and around us by developing the habits, which is the discipline, of service. There are different aspects of our service.

The service of hiddenness – hiddenness is a rebuke to the flesh and can deal a fatal blow to pride.
The service of small things – those frequent opportunities to help in small ways.
The service of guarding the reputation of others – actively avoiding gossip which causes division, and instead promoting unity through your words.
The service of being served – true servants should graciously receive service, not feeling they must repay it.
The service of common courtesy – acknowledging others and affirming their worth
The service of hospitality – “practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another” (1 Peter 4:9); making a space where people are welcome as they are to be together and share life.
The service of listening – we don’t need to have all the answers, we simply need to be present and listen well in love.
The service of bearing the burdens of each other – weeping with those who weep and bearing the hurts and sufferings of others.
The service of sharing the word of Life with one another – nobody hears God perfectly; thus we are dependent on one another to receive the full counsel of God

Reflect

Think about the needs of those around you and how you might serve them.

Observe

Read Ephesians 6:7. How does this verse affect how we serve others?

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 15 – Reforming our Souls

Discipline of Gratitude

[Bible references: Psalm 118:1-29; 136:1-26; Philippians 4:4-8; Colossians 3:1-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

“One of the most important—and most neglected—elements in the beginnings of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendor that is all around us.”^{^[1]}

But a true Christian experience would find, during some part of every day, the soul in a condition to love and praise God. To be in a praising state one must be in a most unselfish condition of mind; he must live relatively humble as before God; he must be sensitive to his obligations to God; he must have a faith that shall enable him to see God in the events which are transpiring about hi m. “a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow.”^{^[2]}

“Dr. Atkinson writes that scans show that when people share positive emotions there is a natural sync up process … research shows tremendous benefit to the one who is expressing gratitude, in the manner of it is better to give than to even receive.”^{^[3]}

“You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.” ^{^[4]}

“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the views they take of them.”^{^[5]}

Gratitude is the affirmation of the good things we have received from someone else. That feeling of gratitude results in the desire to either repay the giver or to pay forward to someone else with good things. Basic gratitude is a simple response to what we have received, but the spiritual discipline of gratitude is pro-active; it calls us to not depend on external circumstances but to train ourselves to intentionally look for reasons to be thankful in all situations; it calls us to pursue gratitude not just because it makes us feel good but because it is good for one’s family, community, and society. It is a virtue that is practiced, not just a feeling. The discipline of gratitude calls us to seek greater mindfulness and awareness, to be more present in the moment, to sharpen our powers of observation, to notice what others miss, to develop humility in recognition that the good in one’s life comes from outside the self, and to actively seek to reciprocate these gifts, returning goodness for goodness. Therefore, the goal of Gratefulness is to develop our ability to recognize and appreciate God’s provision.

The discipline of gratitude will be on guard against the various obstacles to feeling gratitude: our busyness and distraction, our ingrained penchant for noticing the negative over the positive, our tendency to adapt to the feelings of gratitude and allowing ourselves to become numbed to the reasons for our gratitude, and the possibility of feeling envy as we tend to compare what we have to what others have.

Counteracting those obstacles will require us to focus on things that will enhance our ability to keep alert, to see familiar things in a new way, to recognize the abundance of what we have rather than what we lack, to not forget all the good we have in our lives and to remember where it came from and how it made us feel.

^[1] Merton, Thomas. No Man is an Island Mariner Books 2002 (pp. 33-34)

^[2] Beecher, Henry Ward. The Life of H. W Beecher. Chapter 4. Plymouth Church (p. 77)

^[3] Green, Barbara J. “Open your heart and focus on gratitude: Feel connection, share connection” BJgreenphd.com 2 Feb 2016 www.bjgreenphd.com/open-heart-focus-gratitude-feel-connection-share-connection

^[4] Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning Beacon Press 2006

^[5] Epictectus. Enchiridion. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Ed. Chapter 5 www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0237%3Atext%3Denc%3Achapter%3D5

Reflect

The marketing done in our consumer culture is designed to make us discontent, to make us desire things we don’t need. What desires are creating discontent in your life?

Observe

Read Psalm 136. This Psalm shows gratitude for what Yahweh had done for Israel in the past. Could you make a list of gratitude for what Yahweh has done in your life?