God. There is no sphere of life which is exempt from this high standard. Some one has

written: "Thus there are those (a) who do not accept Christ and are subject to the desires

of their own mind and body and (b) who have accepted the sovereignty of God and have

settled for a life of unity with and obedience to God through the operation of His Spirit

working with the believer's spirit".

"What constitutes the outward difference between (a) and (b)? Think

about this yourself.  Mainly it will be a choice of friends, pastimes,

reading material and viewing. Convince yourself that these are pleasing to

the Lord, especially your thoughts. Your thoughts are an open book to

Him. The allocation of your time and money; the choice of a marriage

partner are all subjects that should be placed before the Lord in prayer. If

we have trusted Him to give us an answer in His own time, and moreover

we have followed this lead, then we may be sure that our lives will be

transformed. If we chose the things of the Spirit, life's empty pleasures

will lose their hold and will be replaced by the lasting joy of the

knowledge of God and a conscious participation in His will."

This kind of life will be very much `other' than the life lived by the majority of folk

today. It is a life of complete honesty before God: how easy it is to convince oneself that

a particular activity is pleasing to the Lord, and will bring glory to Him, when in fact we

are simply rationalizing our own desires. It is a life which, in the eyes of the world, is

narrow and we must be prepared to be known as `narrow-minded'; but it is a life which

is increasingly filled with the joy of the Lord. It is a life which in every detail submits to

the approval of God. This is the desire of God, even your sanctification.

In I Thess. 5: 18 we read `in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in

Christ Jesus concerning you'. Here is an aspect of God's desire for His people which is

often overlooked. He desires that in everything we should give thanks: not merely in

those things which we enjoy, nor in those matters in which we are successful and

prosperous, nor in those times when all goes smoothly; but in the things we do not enjoy,

in those matters where failure and loss attend us, in those times when all seems to go

wrong for us. Do we give thanks in everything?

Among the answers the Psalmist gives to his own question: "What shall I render unto

the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psa. 116: 12) is this: "I will offer to Thee the

sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord" (17). It becomes the

more pointed when we realize that it signifies "I will sacrifice the sacrifice of

thanksgiving". Thanksgiving can be costly. In O.T. times this was recognized in the

offering of an animal without blemish, as a peace offering for thanksgiving.  All

thanksgiving thus is marked with a cost. It may be that there are times when we do not

`feel' like thanking God for the various experiences we are undergoing, nonetheless there

is every cause for so doing. "For we know that all things work together for good to them

that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8: 28). This

is not an easy lesson to learn; it is one which can take a lifetime. Yet we have cause to

`in every thing give thanks'. We are inclined to think that thanksgiving must always