This morning I woke up in a warm bed, in a warm apartment, to the alarm going off on my Blackberry smartphone. I woke up healthy and with air in my lungs. I got out of bed and used a bathroom that has indoor plumbing. Then I filled a tea kettle with clean water and turned on the gas stove with the turn of a dial. I ground coffee beans with my new coffee grinder. I poured cereal in a bowl and ate breakfast. I drank my coffee with fat free half and half. I sat on a comfortable couch with a roof over my head and opened up my expensive laptop.
Do I see how much I have to be thankful for in the above paragraph? Do I also see how much I could very well do without? Do I recognize the abundance?
I don’t say these things in an attempt to create guilt. Really, I don’t. But I needed to be reminded. Maybe you needed to be reminded, too. The apostle Paul said, “In everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18). My life should be filled with thanksgiving. Not just for the material possessions I mentioned above, but for all things, and, above all, for Jesus. Everything I have is a gift from God. The more I cultivate a heart of thanksgiving, the more I recognize that, and the more apt I am to be generous with what I’ve been given. Why? Because I understand that it was never mine to begin with. All I have, and all I am, is God’s.
The rich and the poor have a common bond,
The LORD is maker of them all.
Proverbs 22:2For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’
Deuteronomy 15:11
Taste & See 