“I am eternally grateful for all the wonderful things God has given me and shown me – not material things but life, friends, family, insight into my life, and the ability to love and be loves. The list is endless! He is truly the greatest and He is truly the way to all that is good!”     (CHERYL ANN, 35, USA)

“I want to thank God even for the afflictions, pain, hardships and discouragement I have met with over the year, for through them I have realized God’s ever-loving presence no matter how hard things may be.” (SARLOMIE, ZIMBABWE)

“I am thankful for everything He has done in my life, for my parents who first taught me about Jesus, for my drug-addicted brother (who made me learn to rely on Him in every kind of hardship). I’m thankful for the opportunity to ser4ve Him even when I think I don’t deserve to. I am thankful that when I am weak His strength is perfect.” (TRESIA KRISTIN, 24, INDONESIA)

“I thank God that He has met my needs…I was poor, but now I’m rich in Him…He has met my needs completely.”   (DEBORAH TURNER, 38, ENGLAND)

“Provision and care for me and my family these past years. Answers to prayers and deliverance from all my fears.”  (KOLA OGUNLANA, NIGERIA)

“I am so thankful to God for opening my mother’s heart of stone that she has gone to church with me thrice already. I am claiming her salvation. Thank You, God!”   (SHANICE, SINGAPORE)

“I thank God for Jesus, because I know that even if I was the only sinner on this earth, He would still have come down and died on the cross for me.” ((SHOBIN, INDIA)

“Thank you for helping me through my lowest times, and thank you for blessing me so I can reach my highest. Thank you for giving Your only Son so that I can live my life according to Your will, and thank you for giving me abundant happiness in my life.”                    (JESS DAW, 17, AUSTRALIA)

“Thank my Heavenly Father for giving this life to me. I thank You for Your guidance and help in my life.”    (BABU PAUL, 42, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)

“I’m so thankful that my 80-year old dad got leukemia, because through it he has placed his faith in Christ. Though he has always been a ‘good’ man and a great dad, he has been changed by the power of God. God can, in all things, work for the good of those who love Him!”   (KARIN, 43, USA)

“My thanks to God is thanks for all the food that He gave me! Thank you God.”   (BRENT LANDRY, 3, USA)

What about you…what are you thankful to God for?

Hope has two beautiful daughters Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.  (AUGUSTINE)

Down through the centuries in times of trouble and trial God has brought courage to the hearts of those who love Him. The Bible is filled with assurances of God’s help and comfort in every kind of trouble which might cause fears to arise in the human heart. You can look ahead with promise, hope, and joy. (BILLY GRAHAM)

Even a coward can praise Christ, but it takes a man of courage to follow Him.   (ANONYMOUS)

It takes courage: To refrain from gossip when others about you delight in it. To stand up for an absent person who is being abused. To live honestly within your means and not dishonestly on the means of others. To be a real man, a true woman, by holding fast to your Christian ideals when it causes you to be looked upon as strange and peculiar. To be talked about and yet remain silent when a word would justify you in the yes of others, but which you cannot speak without injury to another. To refuse to do a thing which is wrong, though others do it. To dress according to your income and to deny yourself what you cannot afford to buy. To live always according to your convictions.  (ANONYMOUS)

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
(MARY ANNE RADMACHER)

I love that word “encourage” – when you do it, you literally put “courage in” to that person. Someone who may be more battered than you know, closer to going down or giving up than you could imagine. You never know when your encouragement might literally be the difference in that person’s life. When you’re bruised and hurting, it’s that person in your corner who can get you back in the ring for another round. (RON HUTCHCRAFT)

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength. (THEODORE  ROOSEVELT)

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.  (BILLY GRAHAM)

Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness; religion but not salvation; a passport to everywhere but heaven. (THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS)

It is not persecution of the church in China that I fear. The church has always been able to weather persecution. My fear is love of money in the church. (A CHINESE PASTOR)

You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. (CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON)

Givers can be divided into three types: the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb. Some givers are like a piece of flint – to get anything out of it you must hammer it, and even then you only get chips and sparks. Others are like a sponge – to get anything out of a sponge you must squeeze it and squeeze it hard, because the more you squeeze a sponge, the more you get. But others are like a honeycomb – which just overflows with its own sweetness. That is how God gives to us, and it is how we should give in turn.                             (ANONYMOUS)

All things are God’s already; we can give Him no right, by consecrating any, that He had not before, only we set it apart to His service – just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord’s before as now. (JOHN SELDEN)

When we surrender every area of our lives– including our finances–to God, then we are free to trust Him to meet our needs. But  if  we  would rather hold tightly to those things that we possess, then we find ourselves in bondage to those very things. (LARRY BURKETT)

Our love for God is tested by the question of whether we seek Him or His gifts (RALPH W. SOCKMAN)

The will of God will never take you:
Where the grace of God cannot keep you
Where the arms of God cannot support you
Where the riches of God cannot supply you
Where the power of God cannot endow you

The will of God will never take you:
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you
Where the army of God cannot protect you
Where the hands of God cannot mold you

The will of God will never take you:
Where the love of God cannot enfold you
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you
Where the peace of God cannot calm you
Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you

The will of God will never take you:
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears
Where the Word of God cannot feed you
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you

Everything happens for a purpose

By now, the after-holiday blues have settled in: the decorations are packed away, the routine of work has resumed, empty boxes have been taken to the dump, and the first few toys have already proved less-than-satisfactory.

It’s far too easy for us to put too much stock in one particular present that we hope to receive.  Whether a toy… a particular kitchen appliance… or the latest electronic gadget, we often find ourselves disappointed in some facet of a gift we receive.  It doesn’t live up to its hype, it doesn’t do what we wanted, it breaks within the first week, or it just doesn’t fit right.  Or maybe it was a cheap substitution to the gift we really wanted to receive.

I’m grateful that God’s gifts are always the best available on the market!  They aren’t cheap substitutions, they don’t wear out or break, and they always fit just right!  Paul tells us about some of those gifts:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement
give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15: 5-6)

Endurance.  Encouragement.  Unity. When you’re tempted to give up this year, remember that God gives endurance.  When you it seems that all hope is lost, claim the gift of encouragement.  And in our broken relationships, let us join Paul in asking for the gift of “one mind and once voice”–the gift of unity.

These gifts are not simply to sit on a shelf or to display as a household decoration.  They are not simply gifts to give us “warm fuzzies.”  These gifts are to enable us to glorify God – that our very lives might bring praise to His Name.

Everlasting God – Far too often I have put my hope in the gifts that this world has to offer–money, power, fame, or luxury.  Help me to learn to seek out your gifts instead.  I thank you for the endurance to continue on through the night.  I thank you for the encouragement found in scripture and in the Body of Christ.  Help me to live at peace with all, that we might glorify your Name together. (PASTOR JON TWITCHELL)