A Call To The Remnant

For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (2 Cor 4: 15-16)

Lord I pray that my heart would be forever fixed upon the horizon of thankfulness. I can see how love and joy and peace and contentment and life are all attached to a heart that is fixed and focused upon thankfulness to God. When we take our eyes off of this horizon, when we deviate to the left or to the right from this perspective then the floodgates crack open and into the fields of our hearts bitter waters waters begin to seep. Discontentment begins to rise, roots of bitterness begin to break through the surface.

All this begins to happen when our horizon changes, when thankfulness and gratefulness are no longer our dominant state of mind. We all know folks whose hearts have been flooded with bitterness. They have no peace. They have no joy. They are quick to anger. They cannot appreciate anything they have, they are consumed with the things that they do not have, the things that they have missed out on or lost in life.

And they begin to die, spiritually. The bitterness that seeped into the innermost fields of their hearts begin to seep up to the surface. What was once hidden away in the heart begins to manifest itself on the outside. Family are the first to suffer, then co-workers and friends. They do not see someone who is filled with the love of God and the light of His life, but someone who is embittered and filled with darkness. Unless their eyes are drawn back again to the horizon of thankfulness then there can be no hope. Those afflicted with this malady, this disease, lets call it what it is, this sin, will wander in the wilderness and they will die there.

The antidote to all of this is a life of thankfulness and a heart that always leans towards being grateful in every situation. Give thanks to God in all things. No matter the darkness of your surroundings, you give thanks to God. As a saint you have the greatest gifts of all, you have the treasures of heaven, you have eternal life in glory bought for you at a terrible cost. We could live a thousand lives and never be able to repay the cost of the cross.

Run to thankfulness when you are hard pressed on every side. Run to thankfulness when you have been crushed by circumstances. Focus on the light when darkness presses in all around you. With your dying breath give thanks to God. This decision of the heart, this deliberate act of the will, is the power of God in your life. This is enduriing. This is overcoming. This is the fire. This is your sanctification, this is your narrow path that leads to life. Find it, walk in it and keep your eyes fixed upon its horizon.