by Jerry Senn
“We exhibit a degree of thanksgiving in life in reverse proportion to the amount of blessings we’ve received. Martin Luther wrote in his book Table Talk: ‘The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded.’
“A hungry man is more thankful for his morsel than a rich man for his heavily-laden table. A lonely woman in a nursing home home will appreciate a visit more than a popular woman with a party thrown in her honor. A Russian who finally gets his own copy of the Holy Scriptures after seventy-five years of state-imposed atheism is more thankful for his little book than we are with the Christian books and magazines and translations that overflow our shelves.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they’re there every night, we barely give them a look.
“One of the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is a grateful reversal of that twisted pattern. God wants to make us people who exhibit a thankfulness in proper proportion to the gifts and blessings we’ve received.”
(From a sermon by Robert J Morgan)
How Great Are Your Works
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
To sing praises to your name, O Most High;
To declare your steadfast love in the morning,
And your faithfulness by night, …
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by
Your work;
At the works of your hands I sing for joy.”
(Psalm 92:1–2, 4)