I am thankful for Lord Jesus Christ and for all God's love to you all

Either listen here or read on here, and be thankful every moment in life ....

Transcripts: 

In Luke chapter one we have the remarkable story of Mary going to visit Elizabeth. And Elizabeth is six months pregnant and the astonishing part of the story is that when they hear Mary's voice, John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth's womb and filled with the Spirit. 

Elizabeth cries out prophetically, "Blessed are you among women." And Mary responds with her own song of joy. 

Mary says, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour for He's been mindful of the humble state His servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed for the Mighty One   has done great things for me. Holy is his name, His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation."

This is the Mary who's just heard from an angel. But to be part of God's plan, she's going to have a baby and she's going to face discomfort. And possibly danger. Maybe even an uncertain future.

In fact, we read when the angel spoke to her, Mary was greatly troubled and said, "How can this be?" And the sense behind the question is perhaps "you must have made some kind of mistake." 

And yet, now, when Mary visits Elizabeth, her perspective has changed when Elizabeth says to her "Blessed are you among women," somehow she takes on board that sense, that if Elizabeth thinks she must be blessed then she must be blessed indeed. 

She's filled to the deep, humility and that humility in her gives rise to thankfulness and the   thankfulness gives rise to praise. When Mary cries out in praise to God, she says, "the Lord has done great things for me."

It's important to notice that plural, it's not just one thing. It's not just the privilege of serving in this way. It's the many blessings that she's grateful for, that the sense of God's blessing on her in so many ways. Almost innumerable ways.

 When I was in Sunday school, we used to sing a little song that went, "Count your blessings , Name them one by one, Count your blessings,  See what God has done , count your blessings, name them one by one and  it will amaze you what the Lord has done." 

 And yet Mary is aware and we ought to make ourselves aware that in fact, although there's nothing wrong with listing the things for which we're grateful, there's nothing wrong with listing our answered prayers and that sort of thing. In fact, God's blessings for us are innumerable , they're far too many for any of us to count. 

And so we need to cultivate in ourselves this attitude of humility and thankfulness every minute of the day . We need to be aware that if every breath is a gift from God, then every moment is an opportunity for thankfulness. We need a deeper kind of thankfulness.  A thankfulness but isn't an event but a thankfulness that's a way of life.

~ Rev. John Bavington