Sometimes I need a reminder of the benefits of keeping this Monday practice and the private gratitude list which undergirds it. The following words refreshed me in this discipline. May you find encouragement in them as well. May the Lord also "confirm to [your] soul God's love and [your] interest in Him and make [you (us)] love Him" more.
Fraser of Brea [a seventeenth-century Scottish pastor], at one time a prisoner for Christ's sake on the Bass Rock, resolved that he would search out and record the lovingkindnesses of God. He did so with a very happy effect upon his own spirit. He says, "The calling to mind and seriously meditating on the Lord's dealings with me as to soul and body, His manifold mercies, has done me very much good, cleared my case, confirmed my soul of God's love and my interest in Him, and made me love Him. Oh,...what wells of water have mine eyes been opened to see, which before were hid. Scarce anything hath done me more good than this." Let us take trouble to observe and consider the Lord's dealings with us, and we shall surely receive soul-enriching views of His kindness and truth. His mercies are new every morning. He makes the outgoings of the evening to rejoice. His thoughts concerning us are for number as the sands on the shore, and they are all thoughts of peace. Those benefits which recur with so much regularity that they seem to us "common" and "ordinary," which penetrate with golden threads the homespun vesture of our daily life, ought to be most lovingly commemorated. For often, they are unspeakable great. "I have experienced today the most exquisite pleasure that I have ever had in my life," said a young invalid; "I was able to breathe freely for about five minutes."
For the beauty of nature, the fellowship of the good, the tender love of home; for safe conduct in temptation, strength to overcome, deliverance from evil; for the generosity, the patience, the sympathy of God; and for ten thousand thousand unobserved or unremembered mercies, let us unweariedly bless His Holy Name. "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever" (Psa. 136:1).
from David MacIntyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer, Kindle locations 410 and 420
Thank You, Lord and Father,
for the beauty of nature,
for the fellowship of the good,
for the tender love of home,
for safe conduct in temptation,
for strength to overcome,
for deliverance from evil,
for the generosity, the patience, the sympathy of God,
and for ten thousand thousand unobserved or unremembered mercies;
for the blessings which weave golden threads into our daily life, my daily life,
for the resources and opportunity to assist my sister in planning a term paper,
for a Starbucks breakfast mini-date in a busy week,
for a friend's relief of a chronic pain issue,
for slight improvement in my mobility with the walking boot (cast for stress fracture in foot),
for email encouragement,
for two or more joining together in concerted prayer,
for a friend who loves Steinway pianos as much as I do,
for professional encouragement for my beloved,
for the gentling of grief with time,
for the gift of two lovely sunrises,
for an afternoon watching Italian soccer on a Spanish Internet stream with my athletic husband,
for an excellent, encouraging sermon from a visiting missionary,
for my mom not reinjuring her wrist in another fall,
for emergency room graces for her and Dad,
for a home computer repair going smoothly and well,
for grace to say yes to You in a hard thing,
for peace in answer to prayer,
and for Your adequacy for this day You have made.
for the resources and opportunity to assist my sister in planning a term paper,
for a Starbucks breakfast mini-date in a busy week,
for a friend's relief of a chronic pain issue,
for slight improvement in my mobility with the walking boot (cast for stress fracture in foot),
for email encouragement,
for two or more joining together in concerted prayer,
for a friend who loves Steinway pianos as much as I do,
for professional encouragement for my beloved,
for the gentling of grief with time,
for the gift of two lovely sunrises,
for an afternoon watching Italian soccer on a Spanish Internet stream with my athletic husband,
for an excellent, encouraging sermon from a visiting missionary,
for my mom not reinjuring her wrist in another fall,
for emergency room graces for her and Dad,
for a home computer repair going smoothly and well,
for grace to say yes to You in a hard thing,
for peace in answer to prayer,
and for Your adequacy for this day You have made.
My soul, praise Yahweh,
and all that is within me, praise His holy name.
Psalm 103:1, HCSB
(from the gratitude journal, #6474-6500)
