A THANKFUL HEART

Quality of Life Series

9/2/03

LEADER: How was your Thanksgiving?

Did you have anything to be thankful about?

And how important is it to our health to have a thankful heart?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Blessed”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2/blessed.htm

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “The Seven Wonders”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2c/seven_wonders.htm

LEADER: Are you thinking of more things to be thankful for now?

Here’s a prescription:

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Being Thankful”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon3/being_thankful.htm

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “It’s Yours Teacher”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon3a/its_yours_teacher.htm

LEADER: Is there someone in your life you need to say thank you to?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Unthanked People”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2d/unthanked_people.htm

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #1

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. ALBERT SCHWEITZER

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. MARGARET COUSINS

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “General George Patton”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2a/general_george_patton.htm

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Be Thankful” POEM

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2/be_thankful.htm

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “I Was Dying”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2/don't_quit.htm

First I was dying to finish high school and start college.
And then I was dying to finish college and start working.
Then I was dying to marry and have children.
And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so I could
go back to work. But then I was dying to retire.
And now, I am dying . . . And suddenly I realized I forgot to live.

Don’t let this happen to you. Appreciate your current situation and thank God for the good and bad in your life. If you are living for God, your current situations are working for good. Remember that everyday is a day of thanksgiving. Give God the praise for what He is doing in your life right now. Perhaps something is amiss or has gone awry, but the Lord is still in charge and He has promised never to leave you nor forsake you. The song declares that, "This Too Shall Pass", because God is working it out for you. While you are in the now, God is in the NOT YET!!!

LEADER READ: “Give Thanks In All Circumstances”

FROM: http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon4/give_thanks_in_all_circumstances1.htm

Give Thanks in All Circumstances

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. At 19 months of age, she contracted meningitis. The disease rendered her both deaf and blind. Through the help of Anne Sullivan, who was partially blind, Helen started learning how to write and read. Anne started teaching Helen the names of objects by pressing the manual alphabet into her palm. She learned to speak by placing her fingers on Sullivan's larynx to hear the vibrations. In what was seen as a miracle, Helen learned to read and write in Braille and became exceptionally proficient in the ordinary educational curriculum. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College. Despite her handicaps, Helen was not only grateful; she devoted her life to assisting the deaf and the blind. She toured the world to promote the education of the persons similarly disabled. "For three things I thank God every day of my life," Helen said. "Thanks that He has [given me] knowledge of His works; deep thanks that He has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to - a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song."

Each of us has a special circumstance, a special hardship, given to us to draw us closer to the Lord. Are you grateful for the circumstances in your life? Today in prayer, give thanks to the Lord for the hardships in your life that you may depend more fully upon Christ's grace.

"I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and God." - Helen Keller

God's Word: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Count Your Blessings” POEM

(Or How to Observe Thanksgiving)

FROM: WIT & WISDOM - November 25, 1998

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your tears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Pao, Senor”

FROM: "No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Max Lucado, 1986

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Thanksgiving” POEM

FROM: http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/p-thanksgiving_moorer.html-ssi

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Psalm 69:30 “I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Thank You, Lord” Hymn…chorus only:

Music and words by Seth Sykes 1892-1950, and Bessie Sykes, 1905-

“Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul, Thank you, Lord, for making me whole; Thank you, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Revelations 7:12 saying, " Amen ,blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3

“O lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.” WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

LEADER READ: Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

MAY WE ALWAYS HAVE A THANKFUL HEART!

PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRAISES:

CUT AND DISTRIBUTE FOR READING:

QUOTE #1

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. ALBERT SCHWEITZER

QUOTE #2

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. MARGARET COUSINS

“I Was Dying”

“Count Your Blessings”