“Gifts from God that are not acknowledged as such are deadly to the soul, because they thicken the illusion of self-sufficiency that leads to over-confidence and sets us up for failure.”. Tim Keller, Prayer, Chapter 8.
I awoke in the night with someone on my heart, someone God would have me pray for….. As I pondered the individual’s situation, I reached for my phone to check the time and saw a text response to a question I’d asked that individual yesterday ……, and the quote above by Tim Keller, shared by someone I follow ……
and I knew this wisdom, learned by me and many others when disciplined by God for our self- sufficient, stiff-necked and ungrateful attitudes, was the seed of the prayer I am to pray for this person.
There is the kind of thanks that is like that muttered perfunctorily by someone who has just been handed a tissue or a “Bless you!” after a sneeze. Then there is the kind of deep thankfulness that comes from somewhere hidden within the heart when one realizes that she’s been given something she had never asked for, had never even realized she needed, and likely has been remiss in thanking God for providing. When an unexpected gift is received and is so profoundly perfect, one can only thank God for such a gift, even when she has been blind and stubborn and stiff-necked about needing nothing and no one. Jesus is that gift. And when that registers in one’s soul, every good and perfect gift, indeed everything received, is recognized as a gift from the hand of God.
Our church message yesterday by Pastor Craig Carter was on gratitude. It was entitled “Crying Over Spilled Champagne.” He introduced the message as the first of a series of sermons called “Summer Re-runs,” he is going to be preaching that will be revisiting several themes on which he has preached over the 11 years he’s been at Lynn Haven Methodist …. Big themes, necessary themes, easy to forget themes……..
He told a story Max Lucado shared in “Six Hours One Friday” about learning the lesson of patiently enduring difficulty with a grateful heart from the celebration of three small orphans in Brazil whose reaction to the gift of what amounted to $1 USD surprised and humbled him as God disciplined his own complaining heart.
Later in the afternoon a friend asked me what our sermon was about, I said “gratitude”. He said, “Well, you can never hear too many sermons about the need for gratitude!”
How very true! We can so easily forget how blessed we are daily.
This morning I saw this “Celebrate Everything” meme, posted above, shared by a friend on FB. I would add to its sentiment these wodds, “…..as a gift!”. CBB 6-5-23