Three Things to be Thankful For in Suffering.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. My grandson was missed again this year, but we did have a Christmas full of love and joy. When someone you love so much is gone life is never the same; but you can rejoice in knowing you will see them again one day in heaven.

Hummingbird photo by: Mdf, Edited by Laitche  

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colibri-thalassinus-001-edit.jpg

Jeff Miller, preaching on Philippians 1:1-12 speaks of how there are three things to be grateful for when we are suffering.   https://bible.org/series/contradicting-hardship-philippians This got me to thinking how I feel about these three kinds of gratitude.

1. We can be grateful for God.

We have a God who is kind, loving, forgiving, strong, wise, just and creative. How blessed it is to have such a God. Imagine the gods of the pagans; gods who were cruel and had to be bribed with gifts and sometimes the death of children. I'm so grateful our God is the opposite of the pagan gods. He is the God who made the galaxies and also a hummingbird. An amazing God, and how fortunate we are to have him.

2. We can be grateful for others.

I'm so grateful for my family. We are not a perfect family. We have differing opinions and sometimes there is conflict, but we love each other and we are there for each other. If you have no family, you may have friends you can count on. Perhaps you have no family and maybe no friends. Ask God to send someone into your life and he will. Even if there is only one person we can talk with and be ourselves with, that is something to be grateful for.

3. We can be grateful for the gospel.

I take the word "gospel" as meaning the good news of salvation because of what Jesus has done for me in dying on the cross. The story of redemption actually started in the Garden of Eden and continues on for eternity. I'm so grateful for the gospel. I'm so grateful God loved us enough to suffer and die for us and give us all a chance to live with him forever.