Overflowing Gratefulness 1 Chronicles 16:8-11 Psalms 28:7 Psalms 30:11-12 Colossians 3:16-17 Ephesians 5:19-20 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Romans 8:28-39 07.12.19

OVERFLOWING GRATEFULNESS

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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)

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.  Psalm 28:7 (NIV)

¹¹ You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, ¹² that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.   Psalm 30:11-12 (NIV)

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 3:16-17 (NIV)

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 5:19-20 (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)

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 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? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 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 8:28-39 (NIV)

BUTTER

“Be the one who thanks Jesus. Let others go where they may. You be the one who is grateful…Cultivating a grateful heart is not just an add-on nicety, a civil tip of the hat to God as we steamroll through our day. A posture of purposeful, perpetual thanks to God is absolutely central to Christian character. It gives glory to Him. It is the key defense against Satan's temptations to despair, distrust, dysfunction. It protects us from sin and self. It is the hallmark of heaven. It does not exist in hell.  A grateful heart is a gift of grace.”  Ellen Vaughn

“Since I know I have nothing I have not received – I can’t even claim the breath in my lungs – all things come from His loving and good hands – all things.  I am to be grateful.  I must train my mind and my mouth to be perpetually thankful for all that He has given me.  God delights in the praise of His people.”   BHY  

“Gratitude is not only a response to God in good times — it’s ultimately the very will of God in hard times.  Gratitude isn’t only a celebration when good things happen. It’s a declaration that God is good no matter what happens.”   Ann Voskamp

“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

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

“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

“Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.”   Henri Nouwen

“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

“If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness – he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you.  For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing.  Could you therefore work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit, for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness.  It be the noblest sacrifice that the greatest saint can offer unto God.”  William Law

“When Jesus is more than merely useful — when Jesus is ultimately, supremely, beautiful — who doesn’t have time to slow and see and thank Him?  Are we Jesus-users?  Or Jesus-adorers?  When Jesus is beautiful to you — how can your life not be thankful to Him?”   Ann Voskamp

HEART SAVOR

·         God loves a grateful heart from His children for all His Hand bestows.

·         He loves for His people to sing praises to Him and glorify His great Name.  This is not because He needs anything from us, but because it demonstrates our trust in Him - that we believe He has our best interest at heart in all things He allows and that He can be fully trusted with our lives.

·         In everything give thanks.