You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
20 Giving
thanks[eucharisteo] always[pantote] for[huper] all things[pas] unto God[theos] and[kai] the Father[pater] in[en] the name[onoma] of our[hemon] Lord[kurios] Jesus[Iesous] Christ;[Christos] KJV-Interlinear
20 always
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even
the Father; NASB
Genuine thankfulness comes from genuine appreciation.
Genuine appreciation comes from a genuine capacity for life.
Genuine capacity comes from the understanding of life by means of doctrine assimilated into the soul by means of the one and only authorized method for learning and growing up in the spiritual life.
That method of course is the daily study of doctrine through instruction, and while in fellowship, which fellowship is obtained by means of confession.
And so, when you know and understand, and have grown up in your spiritual life, then you will truly become thankful for all that God has done for you.
And this means all things, both good things and bad things.
In the good things you can easily become distracted away from your spiritual life by boasting or thinking that you have earned or even deserve what it is that you have. It is easy to drop names, to promote yourself. It is easy to boast or imply that you are somehow better than others, or above average than the norm. It is easy to self-promote and to fall into arrogance, losing sight of true humbleness. It is easy to begin to look down on others that are not as well off as you.
It is easy to forget that God gave you all that you have and are, and that God can easily take it all away in a heartbeat, leaving you with only your broken pride and embarrassment.
On the other hand, if you have nothing and are under constant pressure, then that sort of leaves you only God to look to and to whom you can place your trust. But the poor and suffering can also fall into bitterness and hate and the blame game. They can reject all responsibility and obligations, with any number of excuses that justify their hate.
So, in all things, whether great prosperity or great adversity or anything in between, we should know that God placed us there, and He placed us there for a reason, which is to learn to trust in Him alone and not ever on anything of this world.
God the Father is the author of the divine plan. From Him comes all the details of creation and life and everything.
God the Son, is the mediator, through which we gain access to the Father. And that is the uniqueness of Christianity, wherein all things must go through Christ, prior to being presented to the Father. For there is no access to God the Father, unless Christ is recognized as the one and only gateway to the Father.
All religions, all philosophies, all beliefs that are not of the genuine Christian faith, reject Christ. Even some so called Christian organizations, which are not really Christian, reject Christ in His full and true role as both God and man in one person, the unique person of the universe, and savior and mediator.
And just to make things clear, as to His role and mediator, it is Christ who actually caused and accomplished the divine plan. Christ created, wherein the Father designed the plans. This the divine design of creation, and the actual creation cause by the conscious effort of God.
Life is no accident or fluke, but follows a very specific pattern and design in all aspects.
Your life follows a very specific plan for your life. You can either capitalize to the maximum for yourself, Gods plan for your life, or you can screw things up royal for yourself by means of your own stupid decisions.
