As we head toward 2023, many of us are struggling with giving thanks due to what is happening around us. The highest inflation rates in decades. Mass layoffs. Stock market turmoil. Wars and geopolitical tensions. Crime and violence. COVID-19. Mental health. Physical health. Family discord. Personal pain…
May the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort continue to comfort all of us in our troubles. May the following words of our brothers and sisters who have suffered much also encourage us.
• “It’s one thing to be grateful. It’s another to give thanks. Gratitude is what you feel. Thanksgiving is what you do.” –Tim Keller, pastor, battling stage IV cancer
• “In happy moments, PRAISE GOD. In difficult moments, SEEK GOD. In quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. In painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD.” –Rick Warren, pastor, lost a son to suicide
• “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that, I still possess.” –Corrie ten Boom, watchmaker who helped Jews and concentration camp survivor
• “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country." –C.S. Lewis, author, lost his wife Joy to bone cancer
• “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” –Charles Spurgeon, preacher, battled depression
• “A sensible thanksgiving for mercies received is a mighty prayer in the Spirit of God. It prevails with Him unspeakably.” –John Bunyan, author, imprisoned for 12 years for his faith
• “There are times when the entire arrangement of our existence is disrupted and we long then for just one ordinary day – seeing our ordinary life as greatly desirable, even wonderful, in the light of the terrible disruption that has taken place. Difficulty opens our eyes to pleasures we had taken for granted.” –Elisabeth Elliot, missionary, her husband was killed trying to share the gospel
May grace, mercy, peace, and comfort from God our Father, Christ Jesus our Lord, and the Holy Spirit our helper, be with us all.