Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

• Psalm 100:1-5

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,  who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

• 1 Timothy 2:1-6

To all those in Canada, my greeting as the title of this post is over a month overdue, but I hope you are still giving thanks up there, as those south of that particular border should have been giving thanks all these days leading up to this Thursday.

It is kind of bizarre to have a day set aside to do something that we should be doing daily.  Are our hearts that full of evil?  Please, don’t answer that.

My wife is thankful that her surgery went well, and I hope that I will be thankful by the time this gets posted for a successful procedure and a clean bill of health.  Odd, two months ago, I thought that I was perfectly healthy, and my wife only had a vague idea that something was wrong, awaiting the doctors to quit arguing and actually do something.  A few days ago, she said, “Did I really have surgery?  It all seems so unreal.”

In spite of our many reasons to be thanking God, our list of prayer requests is still mountainous.  Of those mentioned a week or so ago in one of my posts, my wife’s sister’s mother-in-law has passed away, but that just shifts a request of dealing with an ill parent to a request to comfort for a grieving family.

We seem to always be asking God for stuff:  healing, family issues, the essentials of life, and for the Holy Spirit to work in people toward salvation and Christian growth. Note: List is note meant to be all inclusive.

Yep, even when our hearts are not full of evil, as I suggested earlier, our prayers seem to lack that true thanksgiving, that acknowledgement that God is faithful to us and all good things come from Him.

I hope to add here, or a stand alone post tomorrow regarding my heart procedure results.  This was written last Saturday.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.