“I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels“– Psalm 81:12

Sin results in separation from God. But here we are also reminded that it means being joined completely to our own desires and schemes.

At first glance, this might not sound so bad. While we certainly don’t want to be separated from God, the thought of being married to our own desires and plans doesn’t seem to be much of a penalty. Isn’t that more like a dream come true?

In reality this is judgment; this is punishment. Those who persist in sin and rebellion, God leaves to their own lust and allows them to walk in their own counsels. But notice that it does not say that the lust is fulfilled, or that the plans prosper.

When God gives a person up to his own lusts, his lusts consume him without end, because there is no true or lasting or deep satisfaction apart from God. It is to forever hunger, without ever being filled.

Similarly, the person who is left to her own counsel finds that she is like a blind person at the street corner, without a guide. She is free to walk any direction she pleases, but there is danger and destruction on every side.

As C.S. Lewis explained, there are two kinds of people in the end—those who say to the Father, “Thy will be done,” or those to whom the Father says, “thy will be done.” The great punishment for sin is getting our own way.–Baptist Bible Hour

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”— (Romans 8:28)

We can give thanks, even when times are hard. It’s one thing to give thanks when things are going well. But we can also give thanks when things are not going well.

Of the many beautiful psalms David wrote, one of my favorites is Psalm 63: “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name” (verses 3–4).

We may think David wrote this psalm while he was kicking back on a beautiful sunny day. But that wasn’t the case. David actually wrote this psalm in exile, while he was running from his son Absalom, who was trying to take his throne. Not only that, but David was an elderly man by this time. He was in anguish and personal pain.

We can praise the Lord in good times, and we can praise the Lord in bad times. And by the way, I don’t think we will fully understand what is good or bad this side of heaven anyway. When we’re younger we think certain things are good and other things are bad. Success? Always good. Hardship? Always bad. That’s how we think.

But then, after we’ve lived for a while, we can look back and say, “Actually, success can be bad for some. And actually, hardship can be good for others.” We begin to look at things differently. Sometimes the things we thought were really good turn out to be bad. And the things that we thought were bad turn out to be really good.–Greg Laurie

The Lord can take all things, bad or good, and according to Romans 8:28, work them “together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Remember—the future always looks bright if we look far enough ahead. The best is yet to come! God will not fail to keep His promises!

The annual Thanksgiving Day in America, has grown to be a national festival. It is a day of rejoicing. It summons all the people to gratitude. It is fitting that a people who have received untold blessings, should set apart one day on which all should recall their mercies, think of God as the Giver of all and express their grateful feelings in words of praise.

But it is not intended that the other three hundred and sixty four days shall be empty of thanksgiving, because one is named as an especial day of rejoicing. We cannot crowd into any one day—all the thanks of a year. Indeed, on no one day can we be grateful for another day. No one person can give thanks for a whole company of people. So no one day can give thanks for any but itself. All the days should be thanksgiving days. Any that is not, lacks something, and stands as imperfect days in the calendar. We are told that we may count that day lost in which we do no kindness to anyone. In like manner may be set down as a lost day that one in which no songs of gratitude rises from our hearts and lips to God.

Anybody can be thankful on one day of the year. At least it ought to be possible for even the most gloomy and pessimistic person to rouse up to grateful feeling, on the high tide of an annual Thanksgiving day. No doubt it is something to pipe even one little song in a whole year of discontent and complaining—the kind of living with which some people fill their years. God must be pleased to have some people grateful even for a few moments in a long period of time, and to hear them sing even once in a year. But that is not the way He would have us live. The ideal life is one that is always thankful, not only for a little moment on a particularly fine day. “Praise is lovely,” that is, beautiful—beautiful to God. The life which pleases Him is the one which always rejoices.–J. R. Miller