Thank You and Yes!

"For all that has been,

Thank you.

For all that is to come,

Yes!"

I love this quote by Dag Hammarskjold, a Swedish diplomat, economist and author who was the Secretary-General of the United Nations until his death in a plane crash in 1961. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Paul put it this way: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil.4:4-7

Will I ever learn to do this? To rejoice always, in every circumstance: every sorrow, every frustration, every disappointment as well as every victory, every joy, every blessing? It truly does mean looking back and looking around and saying "thank you" to whatever God has allowed in my life and the lives of those I love. To trust that His plans and His ways are truly and ultimately always always always perfect and pleasing and right. And then to look ahead with faith and trust that He who knows all and can do all, will only allow what is ultimately for His glory and our good. Therefore, we can say "Yes!" with peace and assurance and conviction.

But the only way we can ever do this is to daily, hourly, moment by moment, take everything to Him in prayer--with thanksgiving. In that moment of discouragement or fear or failure, to breath a prayer to the One who is only a prayer away, asking for Your help, Your guidance, your enabling, Your redeeming power to be at work. And, at the same time, absolutely refuse to be anxious about anything. As in worry about nothing, nada, zip and zero.

Brother, I have such a long, long way to go in this department! My biggest battle with anxiety is my children. I am a professional fretter, worrying and turning my concerns over and over in my mind. Forgive me Lord! What a sure path to joylessness, what an evidence of a lack of faith and trust. Either we will choose to rejoice in all, refuse to be anxious, and commit it all to Him in prayer, with thanksgiving, or we will worry and fret. Why on earth would we choose to worry rather than worship? Why on earth would we choose fretting over rejoicing? Why on earth would we choose to trust in our puny efforts and frantic machinations rather than peacefully and joyfully trusting in the Sovereign Omnipotent Creator of the Universe?

You know, it just really does come down to a moment by moment choice. In any single moment, we can choose to say "Thank You" and "Yes!" and experience joy and peace or we can choose to worry about it, work on it by ourselves, and wring our hands.

Lord, I choose this day to say "Thank You!" for all You have bestowed and withheld. And I choose to say "Yes!" to all You sovereignly choose to bring or to remove. Help me today, hour by hour, minute by minute, to choose rejoicing, prayer, and gratitude. And help me, by the power that raised Christ from the dead and that is at work in me, not to worry about anything, anything at all... 'cause You've got it, Lord. You have TOTALLY got it! And I can rest completely and peacefully in that and in You.

Thank You, Lord! Yes, Lord! To the God of all peace and power and perfection, be all the glory.