How full is your life? Our calendars are full. But are our hearts full? Chuck Swindoll said, “The more busy we are, the more empty we become.” God wills that we live full lives. Full of God, in Christ, we are joyful, prayerful, thankful people. But how do we give thanks in all circumstances? Our trust in God’s providence makes us thankful, even when our external circumstances seem to defy our gratitude. I am not always grateful for the things which happen in life, but I am always thankful that we are in Christ, and so we are in God’s hands. Message based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Quotes:
Rowan Williams: For Christians, to share in the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, means to live as people who know that they are always guests – that they have been welcomed and that they are wanted. It is, perhaps, the most simple thing that we can say about Holy Communion, yet it is still supremely worth saying. In Holy Communion, Jesus Christ tells us that he wants our company.
Unknown: Mr. Spurgeon if Jesus saves me he will never hear the end of it.
Carolyn Arends about Rich Mullins: More than once, a fan asked Rich how to discern the will of God. Rich would listen and then offer an unexpected perspective. He’d say, “I don’t think finding God’s plan for you has to be complicated. God’s will is that you love him with all your heart and soul and mind, and also that you love your neighbor as yourself. Get busy with that, and then, if God wants you to do something unusual, he’ll take care of it. Say, for example, he wants you to go to Egypt.” Rich would pause for a moment before flashing his trademark grin. “If that’s the case, he’ll provide 11 jealous brothers, and they’ll sell you into slavery.”
Cicero: Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
G. K. Chesterton: The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.
Christopher Smith and John Pattison write in Slow Church: If the essence of God is to give, the essence of humanity is thankfulness.
Shakespeare in King Lear: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is a thankless child.
C. S. Lewis: We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good, if bad, because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.
Duane Brooks: One of the darkest days in our lives, I was overcome by gratitude.
Duane Brooks: Worship is the context for all of life. Everyday must become itself our prayer. There is a depth of life in Christ that comprehends and transcends circumstances.
Lewis Smedes: I have never met a grateful person who was an unhappy person. And for that matter, I have never met a grateful person who was a bad person. . . . All we need to be grateful is the insight to recognize a real gift when we get one. A gift is not just something we get for nothing.
Elie Wiesel: Right after the war, I went around telling people, “Thank you just for living, for being human.” And to this day, the words that come most frequently from my lips are, “Thank you.” When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile. Every day is a gift; every hour is a grace; every moment is a sacred trust from God to us. Let us not waste a moment in ingratitude.
Sylvia Gunter, Taken from Strength To Equal Your Days: A Year of Prayers and Blessings: Thanksgiving is about recognizing that every good gift in our lives, every breath we take, every moment of joy, and every lesson learned in hard
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