A
THANKS-LIVING HEART
BREAD
16 Be
joyful always; 17 pray
continually; 18 give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit's
fire. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 (NIV)
57 But
thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers,
stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of
the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 (NIV)
1 Come,
let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with
thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King
above all gods. Psalms 95:1-3 (NIV)
15 Let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were
called to peace. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:15 (NIV)
6 So
then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him,
strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with
thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 (NIV)
8 Give
thanks to the Lord, call on his
name; make known among the nations what he has done. 9 Sing to him, sing praise to
him; tell of all his wonderful acts. 10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who
seek the Lord rejoice. 11 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face
always. 1 Chronicles 16:8-11 (NIV)
1 Shout
for joy to the Lord, all the
earth. 2 Worship
the Lord with gladness; come
before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord
is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of
his pasture. 4 Enter
his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and
praise his name. 5 For
the Lord is good and his love
endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalms 100:1-5 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Reflect on your present blessings
of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men
have some.” Charles Dickens
“Patience in the
moment only comes from gratefulness for the moment. …. ” Ann Voskamp
“The root of joy is gratefulness … It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” David Steindl-Rast
“Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace.” G.K. Chesterton
“Gratitude is not
an option for believers who want to splash in waves of grace...God commands
His followers to be thankful. Some spend a lot of time wondering about God's
will for their lives. We can be absolutely certain of at least one aspect of
His divine will: we are to be thankful! We are to give thanks! In all things!” Ellen Vaughn
“Gratitude is
heaven itself.” William Blake
“Prayer, praise and thanksgiving all go
together. A close relationship exists among them. The Scriptures join these
three things together. Psalms is filled with many songs of praise and hymns of
thanksgiving, all pointing back to the results of prayer. Thanksgiving includes
gratitude. In fact, thanksgiving is the expression of an inward, conscious
gratitude to God for mercies received. Gratitude is an inward emotion of the
soul, involuntarily arising therein, while thanksgiving is the voluntary
expression of gratitude.” E.M. Bounds
“I’ll never forget being prayed for by Ray, a friend whose
world is one filled with material poverty, homelessness, setbacks and empty
hands. Ray prayed strong and spontaneous – that I, the pastor of the big church
from Nashville, Tennessee who writes books and has a blog and lives in a comfy
house and has never been concerned about missing a meal and has always been
able to pay his bills – would know the security of the Father’s care, the smile
of the Father’s love, the freedom of the Father’s grace, the intimacy of the
Father’s arms, the friendship of the Father’s family, and the abundance of the Father’s provision. Ray
prayed as a man who, possessing close to nothing, possessed all things. He
prayed as a man with empty hands but a full heart. He prayed as a man with
abundant gratitude, as if he had a secret treasure stored up in a world that I
had only heard and talked about, but perhaps had not yet seen. In that moment, I began to wonder
which of us was really living large and which was living in scarcity. I began
to wonder which of us was running with two legs and which of us was running
with one. I began to wonder which of us was carrying the aces and which of us
was carrying an empty hand. As
Luther aptly said, ‘We are all beggars, this is true.’” Scott Sauls
HEART SAVOR
- · A thankful heart is pleasing in God’s sight Who, BTW, is the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
- · Out of a thankful heart springs a perpetual fountain of contentment.
- · Thankful for all – even when we have what we don’t want or want what we don’t have – is agreeing with God that He indeed has our best interest at heart. Even though the circumstances are perhaps not of our own choosing or of the direst conditions of heart and soul or whatever they may be, we must learn to extract the precious from the worthless. Setting our hearts and minds on things above knowing He is the Master of making beauty from all our ashes. A thankful heart believes and relies on the goodness of God.
