God moves people like the wind moves the trees.
As a child, I lived on a lake in the middle of a forest in Minnesota. I don’t even remember knowing what air conditioning was. There were always beautiful cool breezes in the summer. In my mind, the relationship between the trees and the wind was like that of a fan causing the movement of the air. When I was twelve, we moved to Idaho. Our house sat in the middle of a desert. There wasn’t a tree as far as the eye could see and yet the wind was unmistakable. When you saw a cloud of dust coming, you could close and lock all of the doors and windows and when the cloud had passed, every surface in the house would be covered with a layer of grit. That’s when I learned a valuable lesson. I learned that moving trees are not the source of the wind but a manifestation of it.
Many Christians find it hard to understand the concept of praising God. When challenged to express praise to God, they end up thanking people. I propose that the reason for this is the failure to see God’s hand in the details of their everyday lives – they don’t understand the source of the good things in their lives. When someone does something to help us or provides something that we need, we, as people, tend to praise them for the wonderful thing that they did. But we fail to see that they are simply the tool that God has chosen to use to bless us. God moves people like the wind moves the trees. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t say thank you to them but we need to be aware of God’s hand in our lives, as well.
In his devotional Great Days with the Great Lives, Chuck Swindoll says, “Life is full and running over with opportunities to see God’s hand in little things. Only the most sensitive of His servants see them, smile, and live on tiptoe.” So how do we become that sensitive?
First, we must acknowledge His sovereignty - His control of all things (Prov 16:4, 16:9, 16:33, 19:21, 21:1) and trust that He has a plan for our lives. (Jer 29:11, Ps 139:16, Rom 8:28, Gen 50:20, Job 42:2)
Second, we must accept that everything comes from Him. James 1:17 says that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…” Every Good Thing, a song by The Afters, says it this way: “…You're the reason for every good thing, every heartbeat, every day we get to breathe You're the reason for anything that lasts, every second chance, every laugh, life is so sweet...It's our family, it's our friends, it's the feeling that I get when I see my children smile You're the reason for this life, everything we love…”
Third, we need to learn to recognize Him. How? Spend time with Him. Do you have trouble recognizing your friends or family? Why not? Because you spend so much time with them. How do we spend time with God? We read His Word, the Bible, and spend time talking to Him in prayer. That doesn’t mean reading a 30 second devo in the morning and saying “Thanks for this meal” so you can check it off your list. It means spending real time alone with Him for the purpose of getting to know Him. (Jer 29:12-13, 33:3, Matt 6:33, Isa 29:13) The better you know Him, the easier it will be to see Him working in every detail of your life, and the easier and more natural it will be to praise Him.
Fourth, we need to practice. How do people learn to recognize different types of birds or flowers? They spend time studying the characteristics and getting to know them and then they go out into the field and look for them. They practice recognizing them. That’s what we need to do. We need to make a conscious effort, every day, to look for His hand at work in our lives.
Just as I learned to see the true source of the cool breezes, we must learn to see the true source of our blessings and praise the Lord for everything.
He is the one you praise; He is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Deuteronomy 10:21 NIV
For what You have done I will always praise You in the presence of Your faithful people. And I will hope in Your name, for Your name is good. Psalm 52:9 NIV
Read also: Psalm 22:22, 1 Chronicles 16:8 NIV, Psalm 29:2 NKJV, Psalm 100:4 NIV, Psalm 145:3 NIV, Psalm 68:19 NIV
A great way to get into God’s Word is by coming back to our website each day to read the verse of the day. But if you want to really dig in and spend the time it takes to really get to know Him, the Kid’s Club is a great way to get started.
Kirby will be wrapping up his busy summer schedule at Camp Ao-Wa-Kiya and then taking some much-needed time to rest, relax, and recharge before we head into a new school year and all the busyness that brings.
Please remember to keep Kirby and our entire team in your prayers. You can see a list of specific requests on our Prayer Requests page.
We’d love to hear how your summer is going, any questions or prayer requests you might have, or what you learned from Kirby over the summer if you heard him speak in person.
