Thought For Today - March 1 - Gratitude !

 Thought For Today - February 29
  Gratitude!
By: Robert A Searles

    Gratitude! Are we truly grateful for all that the Lord has done for us? We ought to truly love him because he first loved us, and gave himself for us. Where would we be right now if the Lord Jesus Christ had not left heaven and come to this earth to lay down his life for us, and then to take it up again to be our intercessor before God the father?

 "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." 1Con 15: 17-19.

    Stop and think for a moment. Without Christ, what would you have? What would you have to look forward to for the future? Is there a better hope for us anywhere in the universe than what God has to offer us? He offers us forgiveness and freedom from guilt, love, joy, peace, clean living, well kept bodies, sound minds; as well as a supernatural knowledge that God give us of spiritual things once we have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He gives the power to live victoriously, and overcome all adverse circumstances. He supplies the love we have and share with one another ,because the Holy Spirit draws us and attracts us to one another. Can you find some better hope to offer than that which we have in Christ? Without Christ we would be nothing more than glorified animals, biting and devouring one another , and all that we would have to look forward to would be death. This is the condition of all the unsaved, and it was our condition before we were saved.

    As the apostle Paul said:" if Christ be not risen from the dead then we are of all men most miserable," because there is simply no other plan of salvation in the universe.  But because Christ is risen, and because we have been forgiven and born again and redeemed, and because we do have abundant and everlasting life right here and now, and because we do have the only plan of salvation available to mankind, we ought to have such love and gratitude for our risen Savior that we would want to give him nothing but the very best. We love him because he first loved us and gave himself for us. 

Read Luke 7: 37-50. "And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment."

    This woman was so grateful for what Jesus had done for her that she brought to him the very best she could find to offer him. Not only did she give him the very best she had, but she stood at his feet behind him weeping. How long has it been since you talked with the Lord ? How long has it been since you have felt such a deep gratitude in your heart for what Christ has done for you that it brought tears to your eyes, and gave you the desire in you heart to fall down at the feet of Jesus and worship him as this woman did? Washing his feet with tears, and drying them with her hair is symbolic of true worship. 

Are we so grateful for our salvation that we worship him in this manner? Are we willing to give to the one who gave his all to us ,the very best of everything that we have?

    What is the very best we can offer him? He wants our total life and commitment. When he has our total life and commitment, he has our life, our love, our time, our talents, and all our ambitions.

If we are truly grateful and show gratitude, we will open our mouths and speak for him, and about him, and our lives will be consistent with what we say. 

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