Last night (rather, this morning) before I went to sleep I posted this quote from the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times on Facebook:
Dr. Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh was famous for his pulpit prayers. He always found something to thank God for, even in bad times. One stormy morning a member of his congregation thought to himself, “The preacher will have nothing to thank God on a wretched morning like this.” But Whyte began his prayer, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.”
🙂
I hope this year is so great that instead you can say, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is like this.” If that is not true (for instance, a high school friend noted this morning how much she missed her recently departed mother)…
If that is not true…if Thanksgiving 2014 finds you in a horrible place where it is impossible to be thankful for anything, I suggest that you can at least say, “We thank Thee, O God, that You care”:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7, English Standard Version).
I debated including verse 6 because it comes off as a bit harsh…but think how incredible verse 7 is! The creator of everything you see around you wants to hear about all those things that make being thankful so difficult…but, moreover, He cares about you!
And, reader, because that God has changed my heart I care about you too. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
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