Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SATURDAY, January 15
Psalm 116. I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the Name of the Lord.
“It is not the happy people who are thankful. It is the thankful people who are happy,” Bishop Frere wrote in Sursum Corda. “Count your blessings one by one” is not Pollyanna stuff. It works.
“Think” and “thank” are related in the Christian experience. For example, think about God enough and you will thank him for what he is, for what he has done, for the much more he would do if we would cooperate with him. “Think” comes from the same root, too. If you think about God and thank him, things will change.
It is according to spiritual law. Thanksgiving is faith in action. And faith attracts God’s gifts, attracts God.
The Bible speaks of going into God’s gates with thanksgiving. It says God meets the person who rejoices; God inhabits praise. It tells stories of battles won and prisons opened when praise prepared the way for God.
If prayer changes things, so does thanksgiving. (1943)
When we have a spirit of thanksgiving we can hold all things lightly. We receive; we do not grab. And when it is time to let go, we do so freely. We are not owners, only stewards.
—Richard Foster
PRAY for the Diocese of Lincoln (Canterbury, England)
Ps 20, 21:1-7(8-14) * 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117; Isaiah 43:1-13; Ephesians 3:14-21; Mark 2:23—3:6
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com or Oremus Bible browser.
A Meditation for Pentecost
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