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Recently, my wife and I started playing pickleball. It’s a cross between tennis and ping pong. It’s a lot of fun. It has also given me a few aches and pains as I use muscles I haven’t used in a while!
Usually, we’re not very thankful when we hurt. Oh, my pickleball aches are nothing. Some people have real pain and suffering. Sometimes it is physical, at other times emotional. What we want is a life free of pain. That would make us thankful, right?
Psalms 69:30-31 says, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.”(NIV)
The psalmist knew that giving thanks to God was better than the act of animal sacrifice. But look closer. This Psalm is about giving thanks to God in the midst of pain, distress and despair. The psalm starts “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.”(Psalms 69:1-2NI V). Then, just before declaring his intention to glorify God with thanksgiving, he says, “I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.” (Psalms 69:29 NIV)
One of the surprising things we’ve learned here, is we should always be thankful for God’s salvation, even in the midst of distressing times. Even when we hurt, we can thank God for his salvation.
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.