GRATEFUL
FOR GOD
BREAD
1 The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie
down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my
soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you
are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a
table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my
cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalms
23:1-6 (NIV)
4 He is
the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who
does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy
32:4 (NIV)
31 “As
for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord
is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. 32 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our
God? 33 It is
God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 34 He makes my feet like the feet
of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” 2 Samuel 22:31-34 (NIV)
31 What,
then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against
us? 32 He who
did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also,
along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32 (NIV)
35 Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your
sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans
8:35-39 (NIV)
16 Don't
be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting
shadows. 18 He
chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of
firstfruits of all he created. James
1:16-18 (NIV)
BUTTER
“‘Dost
thou want nothing, O poor soul? Hast
thou nothing to ask? Oh yes! You say, a great deal. Well then, draw near to thy gracious King and
Bridegroom without fear. Lo! He holds out His golden scepter to thee,
saying, ‘Only ask: not the half, but the
whole of My kingdom shall be granted; nay, I will give myself unto thee!’ O dear soul, pray, and tell Him everything
that is wanting, be it ever so great or ever so small. His loving-kindness will hear even the least petition; nay, He will
seem to be ignorant of what thou dost not tell Him. But whatever
is poured out before Him is actually addressed and lodged in its proper place,
and does not lie upon thy heart any longer, but upon His heart, which cannot
rest till you are relieved. And if you
have experienced His help aforetime in great or small things, you may depend on
His readiness to help you out of troubles hereafter; only be earnest in prayer
for His help. We often imagine we were
willing and drawing near to Him, but He was unwilling, and refused our request;
but it is not so: He rather draws us,
and desires our relief more than we do; for it is He that works even this
willing mind.” K.H. Von Bogatzky
“In
our walk with God we are told explicitly by Christ Himself that it would be His
Spirit who would be sent to guide us and to lead us into all truth (John
16:13). This same gracious Spirit takes
the truth of God, the Word of God, and makes it plain to our hearts and minds
and spiritual understanding. It is He
who gently, tenderly, but persistently says to us, ‘This is the way – walk in
it.’ And as we comply and cooperate with
His gentle promptings a sense of safety, comfort and well-being envelops us.” Phillip
Keller
“Patience is the
fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain
that we shall not wait in vain. It is
our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in
expectancy, in trust all the days of our life.
Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will
bear continued trial without yielding.
We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and
how graciously He once waited for us.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
“To be grateful for the good things that happen in our
lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives-the good as well as the
bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well
as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-that requires hard
spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank
you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep
dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and
those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a
gift of God to be grateful for. Let's
not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and
trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.” Henri
Nouwen
“One reason we
don’t grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we’ve got
amnesia; we’ve forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words,
ongoing failure in sanctification (the slow process of change into
Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God’s love for us
in the gospel. If we lack the comfort and assurance that his love and cleansing
are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday’s sins, and we
won’t have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that’s meant
to empower this war. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and
reconciliation, we’ll struggle in our sanctification.” Elyse Fitzpatrick
HEART SAVOR
·
With God, my cup overflows.
He is my great Shepherd leading me onward from victory to victory.
·
God is all powerful, good and loving. He is an Awesome Abba (Daddy).
·
Nothing can separate me from God’s love – nothing.
