Gratitude springs from acceptance of the gifts and the conditions and the circumstances that God gives us as women. Are you grateful for the place that you live? Are you grateful for the job that God has given you to do? How many of you have thought today of thanking God for the work that He has given you to do?
Lets ask about what makes a holy woman. One characteristic is gratitude. I think we might divide up all the people in the world into two classes-the complainers and the thankful. Which are you? There's a difference between a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and a peaceful and a happy one. I think that it does not depend nearly so much on what happens as it depends on your attitude and your response.
If you dwell on your own feelings about things, rather than dwelling on the faithfulness, the love and the mercy of God, then you're likely to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Our feelings are very fluctuating and ephemeral, aren't they? We can't depend on them for five minutes at a time. But dwelling on the faithfulness and the love and the mercy of God is always safe, because He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Psalm 138 "I will praise Thee, O Lord, with all my heart. Boldly, O God, will I sing psalms to Thee. I will bow down towards Thy holy temple. For Thy love and faithfulness, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast made Thy promise wide as the heavens." Psalm 138. Try that one. It would be a good idea to memorize it, an act of praise to God.
There's always plenty to complain about, I guess, if your life is controlled by your feelings. But there's always much more to thank God for if our lives are controlled by our dwelling on His faithfulness, His love and His mercy and plan for our lives no matter our circumstance.
Romans 5:3-5 "Let us be full of joy now. Let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance; and endurance, fortitude, develops maturity of character; that is, approved faith and tried integrity. And character of this sort produces the habit of joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."
I don't know your circumstances. But I do know what the Word says. "Everything that happens fits into a pattern for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." His purpose in you and me is to make us holy, to shape us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is this particular set of circumstances in which you live, the particular events of today, that give you the opportunity to say, "Thank You, Lord. I know that You're at work in this and I know that Your purpose for me is thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give me a future and a hope."
I'd like to hear from you ladies on what you are thankful for today or if there are any more verses you all would like to add.
