A Grateful Heart 1 Chronicles 16:8 Psalms 7:17 Psalms 75:1 Psalms 118:28-29 Colossians 3:15-17 Ephesians 5:15-20 1 Corinthians 15:56-58 Hebrews 13:15 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 04.24.17

A GRATEFUL HEART

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8 Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 1 Chronicles 16:8 (NIV)

17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.   Psalms 7:17 (NIV)

1 We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds.   Psalms 75:1 (NIV)

28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. 29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.   Psalms 118:28-29 (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. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.   Colossians 3:15-17 (NIV)

15 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Ephesians 5:15-20 (NIV)

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 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 15:56-58 (NIV)

15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.   Hebrews 13:15 (NIV)

16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)

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“Patience in the moment only comes from gratefulness for the moment. …. ”   Ann Voskamp

“Ungrateful people live under the deception that they are always entitled to more.”  Wayne Cordeiro

“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

“But, grateful eyes truly do see grace and goodness, even in the most difficult and unattractive packages.  The Gratitude Syndrome makes you desire what you already have rather than always needing to have what you think you desire.  Gratitude makes life’s horizon bright and big rather than dark and distant. It turns what you have into more than enough.”    Jennifer Rothschild

“The root of joy is gratefulness … It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”   David Steindl-Rast

“No amount of regret changes the past.  No amount of anxiety changes the future.  Any amount of grateful joy changes the present.”   Ann Voskamp

“Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude.”  John Henry Jowett

“Christian thanksgiving is the life of Christ in the heart — transforming the disposition and the whole character.  Thanksgiving must be wrought into the life as a habit—before it can become a fixed and permanent quality.  An occasional burst of praise, in the midst of years of complaining, is not what is required. Songs on rare, sunshiny days; and no songs when skies are cloudy—will not make a life of gratitude. The heart must learn to sing always.  This lesson is learned only when it becomes a habit which nothing can weaken.  We must persist in being thankful.  When we can see no reason for praise—we must believe in the divine love and goodness, and sing in the darkness.  Thanksgiving has attained its rightful place in us, only when it is part of all our days and dominates all our experiences.”   J. R. Miller

“A life of thankfulness releases the glory of God.”   Bengt Sundberg

“There are two ways of getting out of a trial.  One is to simply try to get rid of the trial, and be thankful when it is over.  The other is to recognize the trial as a challenge from God to claim a larger blessing than we have ever had, and to hail it with delight as an opportunity of obtaining a larger measure of divine grace.  Thus even the adversary becomes an auxiliary, and the things that seem to be against us turn out to be for the furtherance of our way.  Surely, this is to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”   A. B. Simpson

“It is so easy to give thanks for what one naturally chooses, but that does not cover the ‘everything’ of the text...One morning lately, in speaking of some small trouble, I quoted ‘In everything give thanks,’ and at once someone answered ‘But I cannot give thanks for everything.’ Now if our God tells us to do a thing and we say cannot, there is something wrong somewhere, for we all know the words ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me’ - that is, all things commanded. It is treason to say 'I cannot.’ But first we should make sure that we are commanded to do this.  The text says give thanks IN everything, not FOR everything. All God's biddings are enablings. We can do that. We will do that.”   Amy Carmichael

HEART SAVOR

• ·      God desires for me to have a grateful heart in all things.  This flows from a faith that knows He loves me and that He has my very best interest at heart.  God is the Master at making beauty out of ashes and the uglier the “ash” the more beautiful the beauty.  He takes the hardest things in my life to make the most beautiful.  The pain of childbirth pales at the sight of the child and the gold doesn’t enjoy the heat but does the shine it produces.  I am to bear each cross with thanksgiving looking forward for what He is producing in and through me, fixing my eyes on Jesus.   2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.   Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIV)
• ·        A thankful child pleases the Father Who is the Giver of all things.
• ·       Gratitude brings contentment.