Thursday, January 27, 2011
How Thankful Are You?
Mark Daniels preached a sermon on thankfulness:
There is an exercise that I try to do, though often fail - when I see real beauty I try to be thankful for it and not for the happiness that I derive from it. After all, did God create the mountain to please me or Himself? Are the fall colors for me? I don't think so.
Gratitude on the deepest level is born of understanding one's true place in creation - that's a very humble place - a place where existence itself is sufficient reason for gratitude.
Life can be tough. It can be even tougher for those with faith in Christ. The devil and much of the world target the faithful for temptations, tests, and unkindness. The tragedies of life can seem to put everything we believe about the goodness and power of God under suspicion. But, we’re not home yet; heaven is our real home.I think Mark is dead nuts right on here, but I know that my prayer is that some day I reach a place where I do not need to search for what I am thankful for in the midst of the daily grind. I hope and pray that I can reach a place where I am so focused on God and His goodness that gratitude is the only possible response I have.
Until we reach that place, we who follow Christ can be thankful for so many things:
We can be thankful that God’s Word which announces and creates these blessings can never be chained. God is good and whether we live or we die, we can always be thankful for that!
- forgiven sin,
- the promise of eternity,
- the rewards God gives to enduring faith,
- the willingness of Christ to claim us in spite of our imperfections, and
- the character of God Who will always be faithful to us, even when we are faithless.
There is an exercise that I try to do, though often fail - when I see real beauty I try to be thankful for it and not for the happiness that I derive from it. After all, did God create the mountain to please me or Himself? Are the fall colors for me? I don't think so.
Gratitude on the deepest level is born of understanding one's true place in creation - that's a very humble place - a place where existence itself is sufficient reason for gratitude.
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