What a beautiful fall we are having. Yes, I agree that perhaps the colors of the trees are not as vibrant as in some years, but the weather and temperatures have been incredible. We are truly blessed by all that God has done for us; He blesses us on a daily basis and perhaps we need to spend more of our time praising Him and in thankfulness towards Him. We like to think that we are thankful people; that we are appreciative of all that we have, but if the truth was known we probably are not thankful enough. I had a conversation with someone the other day and they were asking me how far should we go in our thankfulness to God. They went on to elaborate on whether or not we should thank Him for every individual thing we have or just lump it all together. That was a great question and I for one probably have not given that enough thought. We do get too careless with our gratitude but if go about it with the wrong attitude we could get to trivial with our thankfulness as well. Paul reminds us in scripture that we are to be thankful in all circumstances. In the context Paul is talking about the good and the bad things of all situations, but the truth is that we should be thankful for all we have as well.
Several years back as I was travelling in the fall I noticed a beautiful hillside, but for the most part the trees were not changing; it was all still green. The reason was because it was full of evergreen trees. The evergreen trees are always green despite the fall or any change in the weather. In the heat of the summer or the coldest days of the winter is still maintains it’s constant green characteristic.
As I thought about this, I thought how great it would be if we could be a lot like the evergreen tree in our lives when it came to some of our characteristics; take thankfulness for example. An attitude of thankfulness should always be present, no matter the circumstances. When the heat of a pressured week or the deadly cold of pain hits us we can still find something to be thankful for, regardless of that which surrounds us. After all thankfulness is not an action but an attitude we choose each day.
As times are growing difficult in this world we can be even more thankful that this world is not our home and we have a much better home to look forward to one day; a heavenly home with our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me also remind you that no matter how bad things get, and however tempted we may become to lose sight of anything to be thankful for - God is still in control and He always will be. I have shared this before, but I would like to be reminded again of these promises. Let me close by sharing with you 10 things we can be thankful for no matter what happens or what change comes our way…..…...
- The Bible will still have all the answers
- Prayer will still work
- The Holy Spirit will still move
- God will still inhabit the praise of His people
- There will still be God-anointed preaching
- There will still be singing praises to God
- God will still pour out blessings upon His people
- There will still be room at the Cross
- Jesus will still love you
Pastor Michael Tunnell
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