Joyce Stevens

Proverbs 16:9 We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

For several months I have been teaching a Bible Study on “The Holy Spirit”, Sunday evenings at the church where I attend. My plan was to use this material to begin a series of studies for the EGMII web site. After all I had lots of study material all prepared and this teaching has been an absolutely awesome, powerful teaching. A great idea, right! Well, each time I endeavored to complete the portion of the teaching, it just wasn’t coming together the way I wanted it to. I rewrote sentence after sentence and then it dawned on me, sometimes it takes a while, that just maybe this was not what the Lord wanted me to share this month. Perhaps that article will begin in January. We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

One morning this past week while I was in the shower, I often receive wonderful inspirations there; this question came into my heart and mind, “What is the Magnitude of Your Gratitude?” Along with that question came a song I had been singing lately from Terry MacAlmons CD, “I Came To Worship You”. It is a beautiful worship song that blesses my heart. It goes like this; “I came to worship you. I came to sing your praise. I came to love you Lord, your Holy name to raise. Hallelujah! Hallellujah! Oh, how I worship you, your are my Lord.”

Then the Christmas story found in Luke 2:8-20 came to my thoughts, shepherds were watching their flocks by night when the angel of the Lord announced the birth of their Savior and the glory of Lord shone around them. Then suddenly, there was a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

They hastened to the Bethlehem to see this thing that the Lord had made known to them, and when they had seen it they make known abroad what had been told them and what they had seen.

They had heard it, they saw it and they told it. This was the fulfillment of a long awaited promise. Verse 20 says the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.

What is the Magnitude of your Gratitude?

Magnitude means greatness, the extent or size of something.

Gratitude is an emotion of the heart excited by a favor or benefit received. It is thankfulness. Gratitude is a virtue, which is moral goodness and excellence. Gratitude implies a feeling and generous heart and a proper sense of duty.

The Magnitude of our Gratitude can depend on our attitude or our expectations.

The shepherds were excited about what they saw and what they heard. You can tell that because they hastened to go tell, they were glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen, the fulfillment of a long awaited promise.

I don’t know what the shepherds were talking about as they cared for their sheep on that hillside that night. This was their normal activity, something they did all the time, there was nothing unusual about it, just another night doing the same thing. Just like you and me, going about doing our daily activities. Perhaps they hadn’t even thought of the promise of a Messiah for a long time. But on that night they experienced a suddenly, something unexpected had happened. There was a Deacon in the church I attended when I was younger, Bro. Blynn, he used to get all excited when he talked about the suddenlys in our lives. He has gone home to be with the Lord, but I’ve never forgot him and his suddenlys.

Suddenlys, those times with something unexpectedly happens. When that promise you had been waiting for suddenly come to pass. Perhaps, it a healing for your body or someone you’ve been praying for, or the salvation of a loved one. A financial prayer answered, this is a list that could go on and on and on. Perhaps like the shepherds the promise was so long ago you didn’t even talk about it any more. The Magnitude of your Gratitude had become non existent. You are no longer thankful for the promise of God; you no longer look with expectancy for its fulfillment. Our attitude has lost its excitement about what God has promised. Like the shepherds we have to wait and see the promise before we can glorify and praise God.

We have many wonderful promises from God, all of which we should have a Magnitude of Gratitude about. But there is one that comes to my mind of as we approach the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the one we read in Acts 1:11 Jesus had ascended into heaven when suddenly two men dressed in white asked the disciples this question. Why do you stand her looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has

been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go. He is coming again!

When was the last time you thought about this promise? Does your heart have a magnitude of gratitude; is it filled with a great thankfulness? When you are looking at the sky and it you see a strange formation or clouds or the suns rays are streaming down through the clouds, do you think, Lord, is this how the heavens will look when you come again. Does our heart leap within at the promise that was spoken? He is coming again! Are we living our lives every day with the expectation of His return?

Perhaps the shepherds were looking at the sky that evening of our Savior’s birth and saw the star and perhaps their conversation was “I wonder if this could be the night of the fulfillment of the promised Messiah?” We don’t really know.

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this coming Christmas and we look with anticipation of the coming of a New Year. Let’s ask ourselves this question. Do I have a Magnitude of Gratitude? Do I live each day with my heart thankful for all that God has done and all that He has promised to do? Or do I have to wait to see the manifestation of the promise before I am grateful?

Let’s be determined to have a heart that is full of the great thankfulness, with great expectations and excitement about what God has promised and what He has done for us. Let this be the Christmas and New Years that brings a new attitude about the plan and purpose of God for our lives, an attitude with a Magnitude of Gratitude.

Merry Christmas

And

Happy New Year

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