November 22, 2005

[Rev. Doc]

Thankful In The Midst Of Difficulty

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Philippians 4:6

In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, and average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table of grace for his children:

Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things had done,
In whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.

Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from the love of God, not from outward circumstances.

Prayer: Ask God to help you see the good He is doing in the world, even in the most difficult of times.

"God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them."
~Max Lucado