cultivating gratitude

"He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." Acts 17:24-25

Continuing to cultivate gratitude: a swift antidote for discontentment.

• church
• Galatians
• coffee
• clean water
• music
• my roommate
• job
• patients to love
• lord's sovereignty
• my parents
• safety
• vulnerability
• hot shower
• singing
• my name is graven on His hands
• time to sit still
• freedom
• the wonder of memory
• Word that is alive
• soft lighting
• good pens
• turtlenecks
• winter
• piano solos
• being fully known and fully loved
• scarves
• journals
• eyes to take everything in
• knees for kneeling
• hands for raising
• laughter
• adoption
• white bedding
• wittiness
• musicals
• glasses
• photographs
• clorox
• Apple
• chapstick
• downtown
• grace upon grace

necessary

Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but only one thing is necessary.........

"How should you not give your whole heart to God, who loved you before you loved Him, and that with the tender love of a Father pitying His children, and knowing the frail clay and dust of which they are made? He sought us wandering in self-chosen paths, the paths of sin, He toiled after us as a shepherd wearying himself to find a lost sheep. Nor is He satisfied with seeking, but when He had found us, He took both us and our sorrows on His own shoulders--He was obedient to the death on the cross. We may truly say that He loved us to the death of the cross, and the measure of His love and His obedience is the same. When this love thoroughly fills a soul, it enjoys a true peace of conscience; it is content and happy, asking neither greatness nor fame nor pleasures--nothing, in short, which the lapse of time will sweep away and leave no trace behind. It seeks nothing except the will of God, and it watches continually in blessed expectation of the Bridegroom." Fenelon

O for grace......

chief need

Not relief from pain, not relief from the weariness that follows, not anything of that sort at all, is my chief need. Thou, O Lord my God, art my need—Thy courage, Thy patience, Thy fortitude. And very much I need a quickened gratitude for the countless helps given every day. -Amy Carmichael

Cultivating Gratitude: spurred on by several friends who have encouraged me by their hearts of thanksgiving... I thought it would be helpful for me to practice...

1. new mercy every am
2. coffee (specifically peppermint mocha today)
3. getting books I ordered in the mail
4. encouragement from a patient
5. Dad: successful surgery; likely D/C from hospital just in time for Thanksgiving :)
6. my church
7. Elisabeth Elliot
8. lacrae
9. hoodies with thumb-holes
10. sucker-kiss from Nathan (3 year old son of my boss)
11. kidneys
12. comfort of Lord's sovereignty
13. finally memorized Psalm 16
14. national geographic
15. friends to walk through life with
16. hymns
17. hot water
18. the volvo that keeps going :)
19. grace to count until 10 today when I got asked the same question by 3 different people
20. mountains

disquieted

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Ps. 42:5

My disclaimer is I'm not trying to provide a how-to plan for trusting the Lord, only sharing what is helpful for me on days like today. Talking to myself (in a non-pathologic way) seems to be particularly refreshing when I'm feeling restless and disquieted (John Piper has a great sermon on this). I used ESV search online to guide me. Reorients my thinking off of myself and onto Him. I remember that though I might not see or feel or know what He is doing or why He is doing it or what might happen as a result, everything comes from His hand and is good. Then comes worship when I see circumstance as the particular platform that God has provided for me to know Him more.

Here's my compilation:

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Deut. 32:4

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 1 Chronicles 29:14

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. Psalm 145:17

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Proverbs 30:5

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34-35

I know that you can do all things
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Job 42:2

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. Isaiah 30:20

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. Habakkuk 3:6

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! Romans 11:33

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Revelation 15:3

all the way

all the way my Savior leads me
what have I to ask beside?
can I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide?

heavenly peace divenest comfort
here by faith in Him to dwell
for I know whate'er befall me
Jesus doeth all things well

all the way my Savior leads me
cheers each winding path I tread
gives me grace for every trial
feeds me with the living bread

though my weary steps my falter
and my soul athirst may be
gushing from the rock before me
lo, a spring of joy i see

all the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above

when my spirit, clothed, immortal
sheds its light on realm of day
this my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way