I am grateful – completely and utterly – because today I make the choice to be.
And I do know that ‘counting your blessings’ when everything around is crumbling can seem trite and forced.
But when I truly ask God for a spirit of thankfulness…
When I seek him and cry out for the ability to praise him for the littlest thing right through to the largest of blessings… it’s amazing what he does.
What he opens my eyes to…
I like this quote:
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
— Thornton Wilder
May our hearts be truly alert and awake to the treasures in our lives right now.
I believe gratitude, praise and worship is powerful and life-giving.
Let’s speak out our thankfulness, because each day will bring forces which threaten to steal it.
Each day we can choose to look at the negative – or we can boldly give voice to all the good that comes from the hand of our Heavenly Father.
I’d like to finish with a prayer:
Dear Lord…
Each day brings with it surprises which aren’t all good.
Each new day I am met with challenges and the potential for fresh heartache and fear.
But nothing in my life is news to you.
You know every part of my story, and have proven that your light shines bright in even the darkest of valleys…
You are aware of my secret doubts and uncertainty, and you remind me daily that my heart and my hope is hidden in you.
I praise you for this new day.
For the joy available to me.
For the promise you give me that you will always walk beside me, carrying my burdens with me.
I praise you for the abundance of blessings right in front of me, and the incredible happiness yet to come.
You are a GOOD God, and that will never, ever change.
I love you, and praise you, my Lord and my Redeemer! The stronghold of my life…
Psalm 146 (NLT) says:
“Praise the Lord! Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.”
It's a God thing... 
Hi Ali.
Thank you for touching on thankfulness. We have a choice to be thankful and grateful. I love that because it is so true. We are commanded to be thankful but as Christians we tend to forget. How can we not be thankful when God has done so much for us….
Thanks again Ali…
Rolain
So true Rolain! It is a daily choice isn’t it… and when we begin with the cross, and the resurrection, we realize the spiritual blessings far outweigh anything else we could find on earth..
Thanks again for dropping by. Blessings,
Ali
Great post, Ali. I love that quote.
Thank you 🙂 It’s great isn’t it…
great daily reminder and encouragement for each day. When I look back on my life, I see that even during the tough times, I’ve never missed a meal, always had plenty of clothing, a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in. Go from there and you’re already miles ahead of millions in the world. Giving thanks each morning and through out the day affords us the opportunity to see the ways God takes care of us. great post!
So true Joy… just starting at the basics we realise we are already so well off. What a great God he is, hey – and we often ‘miss’ remembering all the many ways he provides.
Thanks for your encouraging comments.
Blessings,
Ali
Great post and quote. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Yes! Love this. Perspective is so important for us on this Earth. You have a great perspective! Great post.
We have to keep reminding ourselves to keep our thinking balanced don’t we… thanks again Brian, hope you’re doing well 🙂
That is a great quote. I praise God for His light that shines through you.
Yes, I think I’ll hold onto those precious words. That’s so lovely, thanks so much for your encouragement 🙂
I like your heart-felt prayer. I couldn’t agree more that gratefulness is a choice (and I think, a necessary ingredient to contentment.) We could all bemoan what is wrong in our lives and what we don’t have – but there here more joy to be found in rejoicing what we do have – no matter how small.
Thanks Janna. I agree – may God give us all hearts and minds to delight in the good in each day, no matter how challenging our circumstances.
Hope all is well with you and the move ahead. Ali
Amen – what a beautiful thought to start off my day – I will make it my choice too be thankful in all circumstances, thanks for the reminder! 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it Patty – may God encourage all our hearts as we remember all the blessings and look for the good that exists in each day 🙂
Thanks for today’s post… I loved the quote: “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” Amen…
Thanks Chris – I agree. May we each choose the ‘life’ that comes from thankfulness today 🙂
hey Ali, what a great reminder, that all of life is about choices… we can either choose to be thankful or we can choose to be negative… we should all choose to be thankful… for this is the will of God for us.
Thanks for your words Walter. It’s good to remember that it’s His will – thanks for that reminder. And thankfulness is a choice we can make daily, by His grace. Be blessed as you remember all His blessings today.
Hi Ali…Hoping any added insight you need today and in the future; will be pouring into your heart from the Holy Spirit of God. This is all a very rich and inspiring opening up and sharing with a beautiful prayer; an exchange between you and our Lord God that you shared in beautiful fellowship from your heart to any others out here who have theirs open to the Lord as well. This all reminded me of something my dad told me as a teen as he always told me things that seemed even then so important that I may have taken a bit casually being young and not appreciating how deeply important the meaning of what he was telling me actually was because of my overly zealous and sure of myself youth. But now of course I tend to ponder deeply even the littlest things for hidden morsels of beauty and meaning and when you said, “Each day we can choose to look at the negative – or we can boldly give voice to all the good that comes,” this brought rushing to my mind and heart Dad saying, “Larry, when I wake up each day I first of all thank God Almighty for giving me another day to do what He put me on this earth to do.” Then I quipped something to the effect of, OK Dad and I can remember thinking it’s good to do that but I didn’t start that practice at all. He followed that with this, because when God doesn’t need me here anymore I won’t be another second and He will take me from this world.” That part did leave me wondering the most about God taking us people away from our lives here and even now that idea is so powerful in its simplicity or truth and drives home purpose! We have one and that purpose is all because of Him our Creator so we are totally in His hands and at His mercy which He is full of beyond measure just like His love. Still even that truth as a younger man I was still too caught up in the moment of what I was wanting to do and that I needed to get going being overly anxious to get somewhere or do something or other. Of course now I see how silly I was in my youth to think that I’m so caught up in what I want to think I should hurry to do when it’s really all in God’s hands and I should be more totally concerned on seeking God’s will at this or any given moment to act in accordance with what He has me here for this very moment to do for Him, because I am after all only His servant which I really didn’t think of it that way back then at all, I thought of it like most people and especially young spry ones like I was then that my will is what is important and I want or I will do as I want. Now I say what I should as a real hopefully properly matured man that I will do what God wants me to do and nothing more if I’m doing what’s right and in His eyes what He needs me here for. His purposes and designs are far exceeding and beyond our comprehension but we do know readily that with God all things are made possible if they are in accordance with His plan and purpose. He is shaping us as the Master Potter into what it is He wants us to be. And what I just told another blogger last night, these words which i know are going to mean something to you too, perhaps even more. “Because therein is the actual reason that this life was designed by God this way, for us to embrace change and grow into the “butterfly” that God intended each of us to become being spiritually transformed, not at all by physicality which is all fleeting and passing away like this entire universe! All these bodies we humans use, as you said, “as a vessel,” will be wasted away rags, but what is inside can grow exponentially taking quantum leaps by faith, into a most precious, beautiful, eternal light and child of God’s!” I bet God wanted me to share this with you Ali just like He wanted you to feel the inspiration to share what you have here today! I feel it and I know you do too. I also wrote something this week after waking from a dream and a certain son g I hadn’t heard in some time came to my mind immediately which I included in the article and so I leave that with you too because this other blogger had hit on a very important point of our reason for being here along with that idea of my Dad’s saying we are here to do what God put us here to do! It’s about changing like I just said, how we can turn into that most beautiful butterfly if we won’t resist Him and allow Him to shape us and show us; as He does what you said, “walks along our paths beside us,” with Him showing us each day like Dad was saying; “to do what He wants” us to do, then we will be totally fulfilled! Amen. 😊 🙏 ❤ 🙏
https://lawrencemorra.com/2020/06/09/if-you-saw-the-face-of-god-and-love/
Amen. Thank you for your inspiring words Lawrence.
You’re very welcome Ali…you pour out so much inspiration and kindness it’s only right and inevitable that God is making sure much is given to you as well! Hoping and praying you are so very fine, and things are going as well as they should be! 😊 🙏 ❤ 🙏
https://lawrencemorra.com/2020/06/13/me-with-god/
I to believe that gratitude, praise and worship are so powerful ❤️
Amen. They sure are.
God has really used this season to remind me of my blessings.