Classic and contemporary excerpts.
Giving Thanks Always
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
—G. K. Chesterton, quoted in
Christian Ministry (July 1983)
Invited Guest
The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.
—Kahlil Gibran, quoted in Think on These Things
Sharing The Gift
Thanksgiving … is first of all a North American feast. This nation is affluent and has more than it needs. The realization that what we have is a free gift can deepen our desire to share this gift with others who cry out for help. When we bless the fruits of the harvest, let us at least realize that blessed fruits need to be shared. Otherwise, the blessing turns into a curse.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen in The Genesee Diary
Why Worry?
It is always weakness to be fretting and worrying, questioning and mistrusting. What can we do if we wear ourselves to skin and bone? Can we gain anything by fearing and fuming? Do we not unfit ourselves for action, and unhinge our minds for wise decision? We are sinking by our struggles when we might float by faith.…
Oh for grace to be confident in God!
—C. H. Spurgeon in Faith’s Check Book
Life’s Most Powerful Force
The Christian business person attracts people to Christ by serving need, not greed. When we do something to meet someone’s need, he will ask why we are doing it. And then we can tell them that it is because of the love of Christ. No one can be apathetic in the face of God’s love—it is the most powerful force there is.
—Robert Lavelle in Reasons to Be Glad
God’S Good Gifts
In your prayer, do not hesitate to thank the Lord for all that he gives. This is often difficult since we are not always willing to receive some of the “gifts” which make little sense to us. Yet all is a gift from God.
—Chris Aridas in Soundings
Our Responses Determine Our Lives
It is awesome to realize that at the end of our lives we will be the sum total of our responses to God’s answers to our prayers, for God has chosen to be limited in His next action by our response to His previous answer.
The final outcome of our lives is decided by a lifelong series of responses of God’s answers to our prayers. The way we respond to God and then He, in turn, to us actually determines the direction our lives will take.
—Evelyn Christenson in
My Heart Sings
Thanks Is All We Can Give God
It is clear that a sacrifice must consist of praise and thanks, or must at least not be without praise and thanks, if it is to please God. And if it is without praise and thanks, He neither wants nor likes it, as indeed He says (Isa. 1:11): What is your sacrificing to Me? I do not want your offering of incense.
We cannot give God anything; for everything is already His, and all we have comes from Him. We can only give Him praise, thanks, and honor.
—Martin Luther, from
What Luther Says
To Think Is To Thank
Gratitude is from the same root word as “grace,” which signifies the free and boundless mercy of God. Thanksgiving is from the same root word as “think,” so that to think is to thank.
—Willis P. King in
Pulpit Preaching
