For This I'm Thankful

I haven’t been too thankful lately…..

I started this blog just as a way for me to show my thankfulness to the Lord for all that He does for me on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.  I also wanted to show others that in this terrible day that we live, that there is a God in Heaven that loves and cares for His people.  That there is still something to live for and to believe in.  I still do.

Over the Christmas holiday, I was wanting to post for different birthdays and especially Christmas to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  I just wasn’t feeling thankful.  It was not especially hard this year during the holidays like it has been in years past.  I guess I was just looking too close at the trials and hardships of people around us, trying to reason it all out with a carnal mind and not trying to look through the eyes of the Lord at it all.  I see such hurt and despair in so many lives that sometimes if you are not careful, you can let it get you down and forget ALL of the Blessings that we receive on a daily basis.  Bottom line……God is so good to me!

The Apostle Paul states in   1Cor. 15:19 that “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”  And that was what I was doing.  Looking at this life through the flesh.  Even at church I would get a touch, but not like I normally would.  Each day would bring more discouragement.  I noticed that I was starting to get that “grumpy complex” back with my wife and family. I was fighting this as I do not want to put them through that again.  So I would try to hide it from them and would find myself sitting up at night just pondering everything.  As I posted in one of my earlier entries, I want to inspire people, not bring them down.  I had to make a decision to really believe Christ and His Word or not.

Well…   I choose to believe Him!   I sat awake last night once more.  Not in despair, but in repentance.  I cried out to the Lord and asked Him to renew the faith and hope back into my spirit that I once had, and to help me grow stronger in Him as we see this evil day approaching.  I want people to see there is hope in this world.  There can be peace in turmoil.  We have a safe place to run to when all goes wrong.  I do know these things, but I had forgotten from whom I receive my strength.

How could I not be thankful.  I have been given an incredible wife and 6 great children to share my life with.  I have been blessed to stand behind the sacred desk and to preach the Word of Life, and to see it do miraculous things in peoples lives, including my own.  I for the most part, have had good health, and been blessed in so many ways that I can’t even count.  I have family that love me, friends that are dear to me, coworkers that I enjoy being around.  Most of all, I know the Creator of Heaven and earth personally.  I have known His voice and have been led not only to the mountain tops but also through the valleys low.  Both paths for my good.  To teach me to “trust in the Lord with ALL thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” as it says in Proverbs 3:5.

So today I stand in a renewed assurance that I can make.  You can make it.  With God’s help we all can make it!

For this I’m thankful.