Category: Christian Living

Grateful Thankful Blessed

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I have seen “Grateful Thankful Blessed” on t-shirts, home decorations, screen savers and more.  I enjoy the combination of the three words.  Gratitude is a heart attitude.  Thankfulness is the expression of gratitude.  Blessing is why both should happen.

Life if full of difficulties; however, God is good.  When I struggle being thankful – or I feel buried in the trials of life, I go back to the first way I learned of God’s goodness.  I thank God that he sent Jesus to die on the cross.  I thank Him for sending the Holy Spirit to convict me of my sin and show me how to place my trust in Jesus.  Once I start with that, I can easily list several blessings.  Christian friends and family, God’s Word, a church that teaches God’s Word, and the list goes on.

What are you thankful for?

Grateful Thankful Blessed

Hope in God

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As I work through writing my statement of thankfulness, my mind goes down different paths.  Too often, I think we fall into one of two ditches.  Either we go about trying to think everything is peachy and happy or we fall into the trap of griping and complaining through our days.

God’s Word gives us several examples of people who struggled through difficulties and learned to balance hardship with praise to God.  Many Psalms tell of pain and sorrow as well as hope and joy.  Psalm 42 is one.  The Psalmist shares his groaning, but keeps reminding himself to hope in God.

As I continue to work through how I believe I should live my life, I want to balance the truth of adversity with the goodness of God.  Passages like Psalm 42 help me to do just that.  Below is a portion of the passage.

Psalm 42 partial

Photo Credit: My friends David and Abby took this picture at the En Gedi Oasis in Israel.

Thankfulness and Praise

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With the Thanksgiving holiday coming soon (3 1/2 weeks), I have been thinking ahead to my traditional Thanksgiving week posts.  I have been challenged to come up with a philosophy or thankfulness statement.  This has been a thought in my mind for at least a couple of years.  I am still working on it, but plan to post it on Thanksgiving Day.  Praise and Thanksgiving can get lost in the midst of the difficulties, but God is still good.

Will you praise and thank God with me?

Psalm 103 1

Who Owns Everything

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With Thanksgiving coming in a little over a month, I think it helps to remember who owns everything.  The greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty belong to God.  Too often we want the greatness – and then we will be thankful.  However, there is more to be thankful for when we realize despite the fact that we deserve nothing but punishment, God still wants to have a relationship with us and bestow good gifts on us (James 1:17).

God is so good.

1 Chronicles 29 11

Don’t Judge a Book (or a Garage) by its Cover

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As people drive up to this garage, they probably wonder what it is for.  There isn’t a house in sight, but it is outside of town so it is not unusual to have extra buildings.  What one would not expect is that this building contains a living space.  No really – this garage was turned into an apartment.  A friend of mine lives here.  As my active (sometimes overactive) brain thought about this, I knew I could write a blog post.

How often do we look at the external and think we have something figured out?  Truthfully, looking at this building and thinking it is a garage would be a valid assessment.  This building was built as a garage.  However, at some point the owner turned this into a living space.  On the left side you will find the kitchen and bathroom, behind the big garage door is the living room and to the right are a couple of bedrooms.

I know for many this illustration will be a bit of a stretch.  However, I have noticed in life that we have the tendency to decide we have the correct information without taking the time to verify what we think we know.  No matter how obvious something seems, we (as flawed human beings) are capable of misunderstanding.  So the next time you decide you have things figured out, ask God.  He can show you what you don’t know.

DSCN3972

Fall Memories of Faithfulness

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A year ago, I spent several days helping a friend pack up her belongings so she could move from Minnesota to Texas to live closer to family.  When I said goodbye I told her, “Till we meet again”.  This friend had placed her trust in Jesus Christ.  While I didn’t expect to see her again in this life, I knew I would see her in the next.

I had no idea that God would take her home to heaven so soon after moving to Texas.  Shortly after she got there, she found out she had terminal cancer.  She died a couple of weeks later.

The verse I chose today fits her personality.  She lived through so many very hard times.  Appendicitis (which I think caused a miscarriage), a kidney transplant, being widowed with two children, Parkinson’s caused by anti-rejection drugs – and that is only what I remember.  This woman lived through many trials.

One word that described her life is faithfulness.  She was faithful in her service to Christ.  She didn’t have a flashy life; she was a wonderful example of simply and faithfully serving God despite hardship.  She didn’t do this in her own strength.  She didn’t have much strength.  She was often weak, but God gave her strength to keep going.

Isaiah 40 29

Vision Correction

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Since I was 25, I needed to wear vision correction.  My issue has been with distance vision.  The farther away something gets, the more blurry it looks to me.

Glasses are a good illustration for how we see in life. If we don’t have the proper vision correction we won’t see clearly.  The only way to get proper vision is to allow God to correct the issues.  Just as I need to go to the eye doctor to find out what prescription I need to see clearly, I need to go to my Spiritual Physician to make sure I see life clearly.

As flawed human beings we tend to see things through our own selfishness.  We need God to show us where we are wrong.  The Psalmist knew this.

Psalm 139 23-24

God has our best interest in mind.  So ask Him to show you what you need to change.  He will and He will help change you.  God loves you that much.