Grains of Gratitude August 12

Hosted by Christine at http://bradysbunch02.blogspot.com

I am so thankful for LifeChurch where recently my husband, our son and I placed membership after attending there for about four months. I can’t tell you how everything about it touches me and lifts me to a greater desire to serve my God!

Today began a new series of lessons titled, “30 Days To Live”. This series of lessons will focus on the fact that our lives are but a moment in time and what our reaction might be if we knew that we only had 30 days to live. How would your life be different? Is it possible to make the most of every day, right now.

Part of each lesson in this series includes conversations between Craig and someone who has a terminal illness and has been told that they are going to die from their illness. Today that person was a young wife and mother, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. She had a mastectomy, had chemo and did everything right – but something went wrong. The cancer spread to lymph nodes behind her breast bone where it lived inside her, undetected, without symptoms until it spread to her bones.

She talked about how this illness and her imminent death has affected her in two ways. In one way she said she looks forward to her death because she knows where she will spend her eternity. She also said that she feels “cheated”. Cheated out of seeing her children grow up, marry and have her grandchildren. She hurts for the people she will be leaving behind.

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life." Psalm 39:4

Our lives are over so quickly! Our children grow up so fast! If I were told that I only had 30 days to live, I would want to spend my remaining days with my family and friends who also share a love and commitment to Christ. I would spend time in meditation and prayer – also with my family and close friends. I would want to spend the time soaking in every moment of every day I had left to live.

The woman Craig talked with today said she tries to enjoy everything – even the most mundane things that go on each day – because she knows she doesn’t have many moments left. Our moments will be gone in such a short time as well.

None of us are promised tomorrow. Craig encouraged us to live in the moment and to stop waiting to live until “when” as in, When I have a good job – then I’ll be happy. Instead he said to turn our “when” into “now”. Turn our “intentions” into “actions”.

I know that I can certainly gain a lot by using this encouragement in my life. I have a tendency to think “when” and worry about tomorrow – how will we pay the bills? Are we setting enough money aside for our retirement? What really matters is today and to rejoice in each day we are given by God.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little while

and then vanishes." James 4:14

Have you ever thought about how quickly a mist vanishes? I relate it to our foggy mornings we have here in the fall. At times the fog can be really thick, but how quickly it dissipates. When I think of my life in that context, it really is but a moment!

James 4:
13) “Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15) Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16) As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17) Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.”

Tomorrow is not ours. The past will never be again! We have today. The opportunity we are given, each day, to live for God and to share His plan of salvation with others is an awesome gift. I intend to live each day as if it is my last day on this earth – because it might be! Each morning when I awake to see that He has blessed me with another day, will be my opportunity to praise and glorify Him in everything I do and everything I say and even the way I present myself to the world.

At the beginning of each worship service, our Pastor shouts from the stage, “God is good all the time” and the congregation responds, “All the time God is good!” At the end of each worship service, we all speak together – “Whoever finds God, finds life!’ Truer words are never spoken!