• How much joy, and peace, blessings and contentment are currently an integral part of your daily life? Are your relationships fulfilling, in your family life are you living the dream you planned together with your spouse when you started out way back then? Sometimes memory recall is a painful experience.
  
  However, those of us who embrace the Christian lifestyle by our commitment to Jesus Christ, should be experiencing more joy, peace, blessings and contentment, because, the word joy occurs 181 times in the Bible, and the word thanksgiving which appears in one of its various forms some 136 times, is tightly woven throughout the fabric of the Bible.
  
  In my church at each worship service we celebrate our Christian experience with joy and gladness, as we worship God in a time of both praise and thanksgivings through singing, with piano, and guitar, and tambourine and drum making a joyful noise unto the Lord.
  
  A Christian writer writing a century or two ago, said,
  
  "Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who gives most financially, ... but it is he who is always thankful to God, ... who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it."
  
  In the Old Testament, the prophet Samuel encouraged the people of God with these words: "Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you" (1 Samuel 12:24).
  
  Perhaps each one of us living in a Western culture should be more thankful for the many benefits and gifts we enjoy on a daily basis.

·         If you awoke this morning more healthy than ill, you are more blessed than one million people who will not survive the week.

If you own just one Bible, you are abundantly blessed. Most people in the world do not.

 

·         If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of more than five hundred million people around the world.

 

·         If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.

 

·         If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

 

·         If you prayed yesterday and today, you are in the minority because you believe in God's willingness to hear and answer prayer.

·      If you have the ability to choose between churches where you may freely worship, you have a blessing many people in the world do not.

·         If you are a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, and you live with the daily assurance that you will have eternal life, and that your Savior has gone to prepare a mansion for you in heaven you should be at peace. Millions of people believe this sad life is all there is.

 Many people have grown up with an understanding of “The Lord’s Prayer.” 
“Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name………………”

In an attempt not to take this universal prayer for granted perhaps we should consider the implications of praying this prayer and begin to more fully understand how important these words are in our daily lives………

Don’t say….”Father” if you don’t behave like a son or daughter each day.

Don’t say….”Our” if you only think of yourself.

Don’t say….”As it is in Heaven” if you only ever think of earthly matters.

Don’t say….”Hallowed be Your name” if you don’t honour that name.

Don’t say….”Your Kingdom come” if you are weighed down with material goods.

Don’t say….”Your will be done” if you won’t accept hard times.

Don’t say….”Our daily bread” if you have no concern for the hungry or the homeless.

Don’t say….”Forgive us our sins” if you remain angry with your brothers and sisters.

Don’t say….”Lead us not into temptation” if you continue sinning.

Don’t say….”Deliver us from evil” if you won’t take a stand against injustice.

Don’t say….”Amen” without considering the words of your prayer.

Perhaps we should set aside some time each day to quietly meditate on our many blessings, being thankful for all that we have, and realising that there are millions who would give anything to have only a small percentage of what we take for granted.