Live with a Grateful Heart

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 We use the word forever fairly loosely; but what does forever truly mean?   By definition, it means “for an endless time: for all time; for a very long time.” [Merriam-Webster] My mind can’t fully comprehend such a period of time.   Time marches on, endlessly.   We age with each passing moment.   And with each moment, we have God’s love.   We have it when we rise.   We have it when we rest.   We have it during our strongest moments and during our weakest moments.   His love endures forever.   Nothing we do can take His love from us.   We can’t lose His love.   We can’t throw it away.   We can reject it – but it is still there.   Paul summarizes God’s gift of love best in Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor dep...

The verse from 1 Thessalonians keeps coming back to me.   I wrote earlier about the very first verse in a particular passage about being joyful.   The very next verse is just as powerful: “Pray continually.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Sitting down tonight to reflect over gratitude, I asked the Lord for guidance with my words.   As I finished that thought, I was struck with how awesome the power of prayer is.   Now, I realize this is not a new thought nor a new concept.   But to me, that’s the true significance in it.   The very task of prayer is simple – a conversation with God.   But how often do we take it for granted or overlook all it can do for our hearts and minds.   I know I do.   It’s easy to remember to pray when we’re struggling – whether with health, finances, or relationships.   When life is hard, we call on God for comfort, for healing, for wisdom.   But the point is, we are so blessed to get to call on God. ...

“ We have a choice, every day, to give him thanks. And with a heart of thanksgiving, we realize that no matter what we face, God doesn’t just work to change our situations and help us through our problems. He does more. He changes our hearts. His power, through hearts of gratitude and focused minds on Him, releases the grip our struggles have over us. We're strengthened by His peace, refueled by His joy.” - Debbie McDaniel http://www.facebook.com/DebbieWebbMcDaniel I read this statement a couple of weeks ago and was really touched by the words.   There are a lot of situations we encounter on a day to day basis where we really don’t feel we had a choice.   The truth is, we usually do have a choice.   It’s sometimes a very difficult choice or even hard to see another option; but it does tend to be there.   Choosing to #livewithagrateful heart is a choice.   It is choice that must be decided upon each day.   And there are some ...