REFLECTIONS

Gratitude To God

To be always in a thankful state of heart before God is not to be considered a high plane of spirituality but rather the normal attitude of one who believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to his purpose."

-William Law

Yes, give thanks for "all things" for, as it has been well said "Our disappointments are but His appointments.”

-A.W. Pink

For every bad there might be a worse; and when one breaks his leg let him be thankful it was not his neck.

-Joseph Hall

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.

-Matthew Henry

Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.

-Samuel Rutherford

He that hath deserved hanging may be glad to escape with a whipping.

-Thomas Brooks

Gratitude to God makes even a temporal blessing a taste of heaven.

-William Romaine

The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God.

-William Law

I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

-John Newton

Whoever has been truly humbled will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others.  He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference – it is grace alone which has made it!  He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart.  And under all trials and afflictions he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.

-John Newton