This page was exported from Shelburne Free Press [ https://shelburnefreepress.ca ] Export date:Tue Jul 23 7:31:43 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Crossroads Community Church --------------------------------------------------- Sunday October 12th, 2014 What a Glorious day to celebrate what the Lord has done for us! We came with joyful hearts to give thanks to Lord for His many blessings and praised Him for His faithfulness. Pastor Don shared announcements and prayed, “Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wonderful blessing of family and friends, we are infinitely grateful for your gift of Salvation, and we pray that our loved ones would also come to know Jesus as their Savior, in Jesus name, Amen.” When we think of the Thanksgiving Holiday, what do we think about? Is it the big party, the turkey meal with family, the harvest from the fields, the wonderful colors of fall, or the paid day off work? How many of us actually stop to think about who Thanksgiving is all about? We truly have many things to be grateful for in Canada, by God's grace we enjoy peace and freedom like no other country. Our government believed this too as in 1879 it was officially decreed that the second Monday of October would be a day set apart in order to give thanks to “Almighty God” for His provisions and blessings. We live in abundance here and we have many freedoms and we owe all our peace to Almighty God! Being thankful today is great, but with so much to be grateful for, our desire to show gratitude towards God and each other ought to be on a daily basis,” be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Ephesians 5:19-20. Yes there may be days when we are feeling blue because life is filled with ups and downs and we may not be in the thankful mood, but in all things God works for our good, and if we know Him as Savior, love Him and trust Him we will be thankful for His help and strength as we go through hard and good times alike. Our experiences good or bad make us stronger and wiser; it gives us gives understanding and empathy for when others go through similar ordeals. God works in us and through us for His loving purposes, (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Having an attitude of gratitude for many of us may go against our nature; however there are ways to make a conscious decision to be grateful that is by changing our way of thinking and choosing to be grateful. First let us recognize that there are attitudes that impede our ability to be grateful that stems from our hearts. There is a prideful heart, a complaining heart and a careless heart. Pride is self-seeking, self-reliant and selfish, all deterrents to gratitude, pride does not allow us to reach out for help much less be grateful for it when it comes, pride blinds us to the fact that we do need God so we turn to worldly strength instead of His. Pride inevitably leads to a critical attitude. When we expect fulfillment from the world or if we feel inadequate to fulfill our own needs, we complain. If we complain we become blind to the many good things we do have and fail to see “Who” the giver of all things is. The more we complain the more we become careless with our words and actions; we will inadvertently be rude or hurtful towards those who try to help us and we will ignore our Awesome Loving God, (1 John 2:16). God has ways to teach our hearts to be more grateful, through blessings and burdens of life. The Psalms are full of hymns expressing gratitude, (Psalms 100:4-5, 103:2). We are to remember God's goodness, grace and mercy and choose to Thank Him. The more we do the sooner it becomes a habit, and the more we express our thanks the more our hearts will feel grateful and made whole just like the Samaritan leper who was healed by Jesus and rushed back to thank Him, (Luke 17:11-19). We need to nurture a heart of gratitude by spending time with God and publically express thanks to Him so that others may be drawn to God. We have heard that we should be thankful in all things, not that we should be grateful for evil, but when evil strikes to be grateful that God is there to help us through it, (1 Thessalonians 5:18). When we go through hardships, God is developing our character and teaching us about Himself so we can keep growing in faith. Through our weaknesses God shows His strength and mercy, and our suffering fades in comparison to what God has in store for us, (Romans 8:18,2 Corinthians 12:10 Beloved God desires our gratitude the same way we want it from our children. What parent doesn't rejoice when their child shows their gratitude by saying thank you, is being obedient, helps around the house, and is being kind to their siblings? A true thankful heart remembers the good God has done, tells the world about it, shows God's glory and shares of itself with God and others. When we are grateful our lives will reflect it, we will express our gratitude in tangible ways as in spending time with Him, serve those in need, share His love and compassion with the hurting, praise Him from the heart and obey His commandments. This will bring Him great joy and will make our joy complete. It is not happy people that are grateful but grateful people that are happy, so come on let's show Him how we feel and give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Asherey Shalom! To learn more visit www.shelburnecrossroadschurch.ca --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2014-10-15 14:57:19 Post date GMT: 2014-10-15 18:57:19 Post modified date: 2014-10-22 13:19:24 Post modified date GMT: 2014-10-22 17:19:24 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com