If you were to pause and make a list of things that you were grateful for today, what would you mention?

Waking up? The ability to move around under your own will? Family? A job? A roof over your head? Yes, we are certainly grateful for these and people take them for granted.

Now that you are in a grateful mood, have you considered the amazing gifts of compassion given to us? I’m speaking on grace and mercy. Thank God for His mercy and grace that has kept us for years. Here’s the kicker: We did nothing to be deserving of it! It was all because God loved us. 

Oh, I’m so emotional this morning. Because of your love, God, you redeemed us back to you. Because of your love, you continue to look beyond our shortcomings. Here we remember every negative thing someone does or says, and you forget what we have done.

So what exactly has Jesus kept you from and continues to keep you from?

Consider this:

• The job that you considered to be your dream job, but God knew it was closing its doors in a few years.
• A man/woman you thought you would marry but God knew you would become so lost in that person, they would take your focus away from Him.
• The regular route you normally take to drive home from work but you felt the urge to go in the opposite direction. Later you learned that a major pile up/collision occurred on the freeway at the time you would have been commuting .

Now that we have made a list, ACT like you’re grateful.

I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. (‭Psalms‬ ‭9‬:‭1‬ NLT)