Tag: Thanksgiving

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What Is a Thankful Heart?

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph. 5:20

What is a thankful heart? A thankful heart trusts God’s goodness irrespective of whether he or she understands their unexplained difficulties, chronic trials, or persistent obstacles. A thankful heart knows that the Cross has conquered this fallen world and that our troubles are small compared to Christ’s great suffering on Calvary’s tree. Thankfulness says, “yes” to God’s grace knowing that whether good or bad, God can use our circumstances for his glory and our growth.

We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress.

Francis Frangipane

 

Posted on

A Thankful Heart

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph. 5:20

What is a thankful heart? A thankful heart trusts God’s goodness irrespective of whether he or she understands their unexplained difficulties, chronic trials, or persistent obstacles. A thankful heart knows that the Cross has conquered this fallen world and that our troubles are small compared to Christ’s great suffering on Calvary’s tree. Thankfulness says, “yes” to God’s grace knowing that whether good or bad, God can use our circumstances for his glory and our growth.

We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress.

Francis Frangipane

 

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Astonished Gratitude

Thankfulness that Flows From the Heart

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Col. 3:17

Christian gratitude begins at the Cross. We were  God’s enemies, we despised his call on our lives and his claim on our hearts. The Holy Spirit reached out to us: he convicted, he wooed, he drew, he convinced us of the Father’s love for us. We melted under his influence recognizing that there was nothing in us that deserved saving.

By God’s grace, we saw Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross as our just punishment for ignoring, violating, and despising God’s commands. We were astonished by Christ’s sacrifice: gratitude overwhelmed us as we saw God’s grace acting to deliver us from our self-imposed darkness. In turn, we met the resurrected Christ, he not only forgave us, but renewed, restored, and healed us. Astonished gratitude was our only response then and continues our heart’s cry now.

When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves–that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.

N.T. Wright

HT: N. T. Wright Quotes