Choose Gratitude

May 1, 2020
 I know every good thing I have comes from God.
 
Here’s what it says in the Bible: “Every good and perfect gift comes from… Where? …above.” (James 1:17) You are such a good congregation today!
Christmas Day 1944. The soldier climbed out of his foxhole. The temperature was below zero. The snow creaked beneath his feet. Each breath sent a cloud of frost into the frigid morning air. The forest around him was quiet … unnaturally quiet.
Suddenly, there was the high screech of incoming artillery. Instantly, the air was exploding around him. Trees shattering. Men screaming. Bullets slicing the air. It was the bloody World War II Battle of the Bulge and he was in the dead center of it. He dove for the ground and, as the artillery shells exploded around him, he thought: This is it. The last Christmas I’ll ever have. I’ll never make it home.
Well, he was wrong about that. Boy, was he wrong! He made it home, became a founding member of this church, raised a beautiful family, and shared 71 more Christmas Days with them.
And on a Christmas Day … 71 years later … he died … at the age of 93. Back in 1944, the old fighter said, This is it. The last Christmas I’ll ever have. I’ll never make it home. On Christmas Day … 71 years later … he finally made it home. He looked around heaven and said: I’m home! Home for Christmas.
You know, he once said this to me: “Jeff, I cheated death back then. I don’t know why I lived and the guys around me died. The way I see it, now every day’s a bonus.”
Do you see that, too? Every day’s a gift. Every day’s a bonus. And every good thing I have, every good thing you have, comes from God. God gives life to bless you … health to strengthen you … friends to support you … family to love you … church to encourage you. Every good thing you have comes from God. We need to understand that God is completely good; He is constantly good; He is unchangingly good. God cannot be less than good. God will never not be good. Everything our God does is good and once we embrace that, it changes our attitude. Instead of an attitude of entitlement, we embrace an attitude of gratitude. The way I see it, every day is a bonus and every good gift comes from above.

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