If you read my blog last week, I ended the post with the concept of how humility allows us to experience gratitude. I found this 5 year old devotional that makes the point that humility and gratitude are a two way street meaning one can lead to the other. http://www.wisdomhunters.com/gratitude-develops-humility-2/ “God uses your gratitude to develop your heart of humility and grace.” What we focus on day by day or moment by moment will ultimately decide what we will get out of life. We each have the choice for it to be one filled with gratitude or disappointment from unmet expectations?
As I pondered this question, so many analogies came to mind. “if you want to know what is important, look at your checkbook.” ”Look at your calendar open to acknowledging what truly are your priorities.” “ If you don’t have goals for your life, you don’t have to worry about achieving them” Here is what I want us to consider. ”The consequences of our choices can make us better or make us bitter.” https://www.clarionledger.com/story/business/2017/02/04/better-bitter-only-difference/97392312/
Jesus makes this point with his disciples when He explains the parable in Mark 4. We can have the best of intentions for our lives but can, ”18 like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but we let the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word (our focus), making it unfruitful”
God intends for us to live an abundant life. John 10:10 He wants us to dwell on this promise so ”our Joy may be made full and complete” John 15:11 Humility comes from experiencing this undeserved abundance from God which makes our lives full and complete. When we remember that we are loved by God, gratitude flows. Pamela Bunn sums it up this way. ”It is God’s living word that brings righteousness, teaches trust, and effects flourishing.”
May we be people “Blessed because we trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
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