The heart must learn to sing always . . .

Would love to have sat down with this man and heard more of his amazing insights. The Thanksgiving Lesson  by J. R. Miller, 1912   Gladness may not be thanksgiving. It certainly is not all of thanksgiving. One may have a heart bubbling with joy, without a note of thanksgiving. The task of happiness is one to which we should all firmly set ourselves. To be miserable in this glorious world, is most unfit. We should cultivate joyousness. But our present lesson is a larger and deeper one. Thanksgiving implies thought of God. One may be glad all the day—and never think of God. Thanksgiving looks up with every breath, and sees God as Father from whom all blessings come. Thanksgiving is praise. The heart is full of gratitude. Every moment has something in it to inspire love. The lilies made Jesus think of his Father, for it was he who clothed them in beauty. The providence of our lives, if we think rightly of it, is simply God caring for us. Our circumstances may sometimes be hard, our experiences painful, and we may see nothing in them to make us glad. But faith teaches us that God is always good and always kind, whatever the present events may be. We may be thankful, therefore, even when we cannot be glad. Our hearts may be grateful, knowing that good will come to us even out of pain and loss. This is the secret of true thanksgiving. It thinks always of God and praises him for everything. The song never dies out in the heart, however little there may be in the circumstances of life to make us glad. Thanksgiving is a quality of all noble and unselfish life. No man is so unworthy, as he who never cherishes the sentiment of gratitude, who receives life's gifts and favors—and never gives back anything in return for all he gets. Until we think seriously of it, we do not begin to realize what we are receiving continually from those about us. None may give us money, or do for us things which the world counts gifts or favors, but these are not the best things. Our teachers are ever enriching us by the lessons they give us. Those who require hard tasks of us and severely demand of us the best we can do, are our truest benefactors. Sometimes we complain of the hardness of our lives, that we have had so little of ease and luxury, that we have had to work so hard, bear so many burdens, and sometimes we let ourselves grow bitter and unthankful as we think of the severity of our experience. But of all times—it has been in these very severities that we have got the richest qualities in our character. If we are living truly, serving God and following Christ, there is no event or experience for which we may not be thankful. Every voice of our lips should be praise. Everyday of our years should be a thanksgiving day. He who has learned the Thanksgiving lesson, well has found the secret of a beautiful life. "Praise is lovely," says the Hebrew Psalmist. Lovely means fit, graceful, pleasing, attractive. Ingratitude is never lovely. The life that is always thankful is winsome, ever a joy to all who know it. The influence of an ever-praising life on those it touches, is almost divine. The way to make others good—is to be good yourself. The way to diffuse a spirit of thanksgiving—is to be thankful yourself. A complaining spirit makes unhappiness everywhere. How may we learn this thanksgiving lesson? It comes not merely through a glad natural disposition. There are some favored people who were born cheerful. They have in them a spirit of happiness which nothing ever quenches. They always see the bright side of things. They are naturally optimistic. But the true thanksgiving spirit is more than this. It is something which can take even an unhappy and an ungrateful spirit—and make it new in its sweetness and beauty. It is something which can change discontent and complaining into praise; ingratitude into grateful, joyful trust. Christian thanksgiving is the life of Christ in the heart, transforming the disposition and the whole character. Thanksgiving must be wrought into the life as a habit—before it can become a fixed and permanent quality. An occasional burst of praise, in the midst of years of complaining, is not what is required. Songs on rare, sunshiny days; and no songs when skies are cloudy—will not make a life of gratitude. The heart must learn to sing always. This lesson is learned only when it becomes a habit which nothing can weaken. We must persist in being thankful. When we can see no reason for praise—we must believe in the divine love and goodness, and sing in the darkness. Thanksgiving has attained its rightful place in us, only when it is part of all our days and dominates all our experiences. We may call one day in the year Thanksgiving Day, and fill it with song and gladness, remembering all the happy things we have enjoyed, all the pleasant events, all the blessings of our friendships, all our prosperities. But we cannot gather all our year's thanksgivings into any brightest day. We cannot leave today without thanks, and then thank God tomorrow for today and tomorrow both. Today's sunshine will not light tomorrow's skies. Every day must be a thanksgiving day for itself.

THROUGH HIM

Why in the world have we, as  Christ's warriors, allowed Satan to  reduce  us  to weak, doubtful, fearful, lukewarm, distracted, impotent soldiers?

What has happened to us, sisters and brothers, that we could ever be thus described?!

Paul, through inspiration, had a very different vision for the Christian warrior: strengthened with might, more than conquerors,  renewed day by day, victorious!

Satan whispers the old lie and we repeat it:

  I can handle this

This isn't really a problem for me

I'm a strong person

I can quit whenever I want

 And even more dangerous:               I pray every day, I'm fine!

I read my Bible regularly, more than some

I go to church

I give

That LITTLE word is a BIG problem and STANDS IN THE WAY of our strength, our conquering, our renewal and our victory.

Most of us long-time Christians know these favorite verses and can quote them from memory . .  oh! but not usually the parts in bold.

". . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . ."                         Ephesians 3:14-17

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 'As it is written: For your sakes we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'

Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM . . "

Romans 8:35-37

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

I Cor. 15:57

There is no me in my strength

There is no me in my conquest

No me in renewal

And no me in victory

 As we casually glance over our shoulders, comrades are falling all around us. Too weak, too distracted, too fearful to pick up the sword that guarantees victory. And perhaps I am too weak, distracted and fearful to realize: I am one of them.

This is war!

I choose strength

I choose conquest

I choose renewal

I choose VICTORY . . .

THROUGH CHRIST MY LORD

He has already won it.