The Power of Being Thankful: 365 Devotions for Discovering the Strength of Gratitude (54 page)

God wants us to be assured of His love and never allow anything to separate us from it. With a heart full of gratitude, we can rest in the knowledge that God loves us in the good times, and He loves us in the hard times. God loves us on the days we act right, and He loves us on the days we don’t act right. Thankfully, God’s love is unconditional.

He loves us based not on what we do, but on who we have become in Christ. In other words, we need to know that we are God’s beloved children, and how to separate our “who” from our “do.” We won’t
do
everything right all the time, but we are still in right-standing with God through Christ. God still loves us every moment of every day. That is something worth celebrating!

Father, I am grateful that Your love for me is based on who I am in Christ, not on what I do each day. Even though I want to please You with my actions, I thank You that Your love for me is deeper than that. You love me as Your child, and nothing can take away Your love.

Jesus is the best friend you will ever have. Whether or not you feel He is there, He is there for you to depend on in every area of your life. Lean on and trust Him with all your heart and mind. He will take you in the right direction and make your paths straight. You can talk to Him about everything.

Thank Him for the blessings He has given you—including the blessing of His presence. He always understands you and never rejects or condemns you. Nothing is too big for Him to handle, and for that matter, nothing is too small. Although we don’t always
feel
God’s presence, when we put our trust in Him, we see the result of Him working in our lives.

Thank You, Father, for the friend I have in Jesus. I believe that I am never alone and I have the best friend I could ever hope for in Christ Jesus. Thank You for Your daily love and presence in my life.

The closer you grow to God, the easier it is to develop a lifestyle of making the right choices. Philippians 2:12 says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. This means after your salvation when you are born again, you build your relationship with God by studying, learning, praying, and fellowshipping with God. You invite Him into every
area
of your life.

God is not willing to live in what I call a “Sunday morning box.” He wants to invade every day of your life and be involved in everything you do. Be grateful that God is your partner in life. He delights in helping you, and He especially enjoys just being with you! Acknowledge God in all your ways and He will direct your steps (see Proverbs 3:6).

Father, I desire to give every part of my life to You. I thank You that Your power is too great to be confined to any one part of my life. Today, I choose to submit every part of my life and everything I have—my time, energy, talents, finances, relationships, and emotions—to You.

We have many opportunities every day to get offended; each time we must make a choice. If we choose to live by our feelings, we will never flow in the all-important facet of love called forgiveness. Forgiveness is the antidote for offense, and we can be very thankful that God has provided it as a way for us to keep our peace.

I once read that 95 percent of the time when people hurt our feelings, it was not what they intended to do. We always seem to assume people are attacking us, while the truth is, they are probably just being insensitive to how their behavior is affecting us. Rarely do people stay awake at night planning to be offensive to the people they meet the next day. Stress levels are high in the world today, and frequently people hurt us due to the pressure they feel inside themselves.

“Drop it, leave it, and let it go,” is what
The Amplified Bible
says we are to do with offenses (see Mark 11:25). It is important to forgive quickly. Thankfully, the quicker we forgive, the easier it is to do. God is love, and He forgives and forgets. In order to be like Him, we can develop the same habit.

Father, I am thankful that You have forgiven me of all my sins. I pray that You will help me follow Your example and forgive those people who have hurt me. Thank You for Your strength that makes it possible for me to forgive others and live without offense.

It is difficult to keep showing love to those individuals who take from us all we are willing to give and who never give anything back. But I want to encourage you not to give up. We are not responsible for how others act, only how we act.

The truth is that God did not give up on us. How could He? He is love, and love never quits—aren’t you thankful for that? Love is always right there, doing its job. Love knows that if it refuses to quit, it will ultimately win the victory.

Some people may refuse to receive our love no matter what we do. But that does not mean that love has failed. Love upholds us. It gives us joy. It pleases God when we walk in love.

Father, when I am faced with a person who doesn’t seem to receive love, help me to keep showing them love anyway. I know that no act of love is ever wasted. Thank You that love never fails.