Climbing the ladder of His will: Thankfulness

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Thankfulness

"In a Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts he has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measures, of spiritual knowledge, experience and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly to the highest good.Then we deplore the fact that we lack deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things, and forget to give thanks for the ordinary small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from him the little things?"

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1 Comments:

At 5:41 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

ooh, man. my mom is always telling me, 'be faithful in the little things, emily!' :p
and i know it's so true! if God knows that we can't simply keep our rooms clean, or obey our parents, or be nice to our siblings; how on Earth do we expect Him to want to send us to a foreign country to be a missionary (of course that's a stretch) or whatever else we're desiring to do? it's just that simple. i'm constantly having to remind myself of this. i can't get caught up thinking 'GRR! God, why won't You show me want You want to do in my life?!' when i can even be consistent in my daily chores? hmmmm.
:]

 

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