Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! (Psalms 107:21)

Complain.  Complain.  Complain.

Who doesn’t love a good pity party?  But, I have to admit, sometimes I get on my own nerves from all my complaining.

For just a few moments, let’s lay aside our complaints and think about some things we have to be thankful for.  I’ll go first.

“Lord, thank You”–

• You saved my soul.
• You gave me Your word to guide and encourage me on the way.
• You meet my every need – physical, emotional, spiritual.
• You hear my prayers – my prayers for others as well as their prayers for me.
• You receive me into your presence – to worship, to praise, even to hear my complaints.
• You have filled my life with family and friends who love and care for me .
• You give me strength for the demands of life.

I offer this brief list fully understanding how inadequate it is.  There is not enough space on the world wide web nor enough time in eternity to name all the ways the Lord has blessed me.  No list can ever be complete, for God’s mercies are new every morning.

I love to quote my parents. After all these years I have finally come to see how wise they were. Growing up, when one of us kids wanted to complain, (yes, my complaining goes way back), Daddy would say “no matter how bad off you think you are, you can always find someone who is worse off than you”.

Daddy was right but it is our Heavenly Father who gives us the true antidote to our complaining nature – it is a daily dose of thankfulness. The cure for complaining is day-in and day-out giving praise to God for His steadfast love and wondrous works.

I’ve shared my thankfulness list. Now, your turn.

“Lord, thank You”–

Copyright ©️ 2016 Sandra Bivens Smith. All rights reserved.

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Tho the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go- thru the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain

When the circumstances around us, or the turmoil within us, bring great distress, it is once again time to rely upon the Lord and His word. What comfort can fill our hearts, as we allow the Lord to speak words of peace and consolation from the scriptures into our lives.

“‘Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth’” (Matthew 5:5).

God rewards the gentle with His own joy and gladness. But more specifically, He allows such saints to “inherit the earth.” In the future the Father will completely reclaim earth, and believers will rule it with Him. Because only believers are truly gentle, Jesus could confidently proclaim “they shall inherit the earth.”

“Inherit” denotes the receiving of one’s allotted portion and correlates perfectly with Psalm 37:11—“the humble will inherit the land.” We sometimes wonder why the godless seem to prosper while the godly suffer, but God assures us that He will ultimately make things right (cf. Ps. 37:10). We must trust the Lord and obey His will in these matters. He will settle everything in the right way at the right time. Meanwhile, we can trust His promise that we, as those who are gentle, will inherit the earth. This promise also reminds us that our place in Christ’s kingdom is forever secure (cf. 1 Cor. 3:21–23).

The promise of a future inheritance also gives us hope and happiness for the present. More than a century ago George MacDonald wrote, “We cannot see the world as God means it in the future, save as our souls are characterized by meekness. In meekness we are its only inheritors. Meekness alone makes the spiritual retina pure to receive God’s things as they are, mingling with them neither imperfection nor impurity.”

Ask Yourself
Yes, it often seems as though everyone “inherits the earth” but us mild-mannered believers. But what truly makes life enjoyable on the earth? And why do the curt and the coarsest among us not really get to experience its simple pleasures?

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610,

People have all sorts of notions about God and what He is like, but the testimony of Scripture is plain: unless you know Jesus Christ, you do not know God, and you cannot walk with Him.

So what is our only hope for harmony? The answer is not in our own attempts at living justly but in “the righteous acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:5). To every Christian, God has demonstrated His righteousness most clearly in the Gospel. Indeed, God has shown each and every one of us what is good—namely, the Lord Jesus Christ and His mission “to reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:20).

We will never fix the world. We can never restore harmony. Only the Conductor can cause His world and everything in it to live at peace and to reverberate with beauty and euphony. But until God chooses to fully restore order and harmony, we can all pledge, by the power of the Spirit, to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly in our spheres of influence, however great or small.

This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

It should be obvious to us by this point, but we cannot walk with God except by means of the Gospel. “Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ,” says the apostle John (1 John 1:3, emphasis added). Or as Jesus Himself put it, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate display of God’s justice.

People have all sorts of notions about God and what He is like, but the testimony of Scripture is plain: unless you know Jesus Christ, you do not know God, and you cannot walk with Him.

This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

Often, the message of Micah 6:8 sometimes replaces the Gospel. Instead of heralding “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), we sound a message of generic love and goodwill. Now, again, we should take no issue with people—believers and unbelievers alike—loving one another insofar as they are able. But the Scriptures call us to more than just good feelings.

The apostle Paul puts it this way: “The aim of our charge is love that issues form a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5, emphasis added). Pure love issues only from a pure source, and that source must be a heart made new by the transforming power of the Gospel. Apart from the Gospel, we have no hope to genuinely love kindness and mercy.

This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

By the time we arrive at what God requires in [Micah] verse 8, it’s all too easy for us to neglect the call in verse 5 to remember and know what the Lord has done. But unless we ourselves have come to know the steadfast love of the Lord, we have no hope to rightly dispense it to others, and we can neither do justice nor love kindness nor walk humbly with God.

This article has been adapted from the sermon “What God Requires” by Alistair Begg.

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”

Christ leads us in triumph; we do not win it for ourselves. This triumph is a spiritual victory that belongs to us by being in Christ. “Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.” Jesus won the victory at His death, burial, and resurrection. Now, He wants us to look to Him to lead us in that victory day by day.