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[[topics_collection_ii|| Topics Collection ii ]]
======Thanks 3 - Mechanical Thankfulness? ...======
Tuesday, July 6, 2010. It is good to give thanks to the Lord. We have started
to look into the role of giving thanks. We have started to give
thanks explicitly for the many wonders we receive every day in and around us.
But we need to realize that giving thanks is only one part of the story.
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**Bad Mechanics of giving thanks!**
There are some dangers in giving thanks. We can do it mechanically. That means:
we can start to give thanks to the Lord on a regular basis, but loose the main
points of our relationship to him.
It is always a danger of "religious" behavior to consider God as a kind of
wish-fulfilling-machine. We pray, he gives. We want something, we go to him
and demand that he gives what we want. Then, if we receive, we give thanks.
If we do not receive, be become angry or ignorant or we loose faith.
We need to realize that the "faith" the bible talks about is different from this
mechanical understanding of prayer and thankfulness. Yes, God IS the great
provider. He is the great helper. He gives when we pray and often without
prayer. But receiving and giving thanks is not the center of our relationship
to him and it cannot be the center - or it becomes empty and dead!
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**A living relationship, new every day**
God wants us to live in a lively and wonderful relationship with him. He wants us
to get to know him, his character, his purity, his love, his truth, his
trustfulness and his trust. Healing is here, where we get to know him. Only in
full truth and trust our life becomes whole. Without him, we will always be
incomplete and suffer.
In God's presence, thankfulness is present as well. He is a highly thankful God,
in the unity of God father, son and holy spirit thankfulness is one of the key
characteristics. But it is not the empty thankfulness of a mechanical wish-machine,
but the living thankfulness of love and dedication.
God's wonders are new every morning. Thanks can be new every morning. We can be
filled by living thankfulness every day. It is one of God's characteristics,
that he is life. He is new every day. His life is as fresh as the early morning
sun, as a newborn baby, as a first beginning. Our thankfulness can be similar
to this, when we live with him, when his renewing power is part of our life.
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