There is much to be thankful for…

Are you thankful or grateful or simply aware of all that you have? How often do we sit back, reflect and realise that there are roofs overhead, jobs to go to, children to feed (for some of us) and food in the fridge. Clean water for example, millions around the globe don’t have access to it, yet there it is, waiting to stream from the tap as we turn it to hot or cold. It is so easy to take the normality of life for granted or become complacent with what we do have.

Much has been written about the now 16 month old invasion of the Ukraine, and there is very little that we can do. As a church we took up an offering to send to a church that is working on the ground, bringing food and other necessary goods to war torn people. We also have committed to praying at every gathering, there isn’t much we do from our relatively cozy homes in Hampshire but we can pray. It’s when you see the pictures of bombed out cities like Mariupol and Bahkmut that we realise just how much we have and can be thankful for in the first place.

As a church we’ve been blessed to see people healed recently, we’ve seen others come to faith and continue their journey of recovery from addiction. Meanwhile some people that we know have had long-term illness and struggle with the diagnosis from the doctor or the loss of a job. Keeping a heart of thankfulness through the ups and downs of life can go a long way.

The Bible speaks about being grateful all over the place. and in Proverbs 17:22 the writer brings it alive. ‘A joyful heart is like good medicine’ being joyful and thankful for what the Lord has done and is doing in your life is good medicine. Who doesn’t want some of that?

Today, think about how you can be thankful? What might you be taking for granted in your life? Look around you, it won’t be hard to find many reasons, maybe even 10,000 of them of why you thankful to the Lord.