Saturday, May 9, 2009

Gratitude

Lovers of Jesus,
Have you showed your gratitude for His love this week, this day, this hour, this moment?

From Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon
Gratitude
April 9, Morning
Luke 23:27 ‘And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.”
“They weep about innocence being mistreated, goodness being persecuted, love bleeding, and meekness about to die. But in my heart there is a deeper and more distressing reason to mourn. My sins were the scourges that lacerated those blessed shoulders. My sins crowned with thorns that bleeding brow. My sins cried, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” My sins laid the cross on His gracious shoulder.
Jesus being led to die is sorrow enough for one eternity, but my having been His murderer is more, infinitely more grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.
It is not hard to guess why those women loved Him and wept, but they had no greater reasons for love and grief than my heart has. Nain’s widow saw her son raised from the dead (Luke 7:15), but I have been raised in newness of life. Peter’s mother-in-law was cured of a fever (Mark 1:30), but I was cured of the greater plague of sin. Mary and Martha were blessed with His visits (Luke 10:38), but He dwells in me. His mother gave birth, but He is formed in me as the Hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27).
I have a debt as great as these holy women. Let me equal them in gratitude or sorrow:”

Mike’s prayer
Lord, today and even in this moment, may I let Your love for me overwhelm every thought, concern, emotion so out of this may I live for You. May I fulfill your command as given by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment great than these.”
Amen!