Grateful meditations

What am I thankful for? Well, I can think of many things. I have had many temporal blessings in my life; many times filled with laughter and joy. I have memories that I cherish and am truly grateful to have experienced. I have a helpful and loving family, a good marriage, 4 happy children, a sound church, and genuine friends. But notice I said temporal. God is good to His children in this life - He really is - but everything in the here and now is very temporary. It is here today and gone tomorrow. One day you have a job that provides adequately for your family and then next thing you know it's gone. One day health insurance is a good friend and then..... Bam! It is gone before you know what hit you, at a time when it seems like your greatest need of it is there! Tight budgets get tighter, healthy friends and family suddenly become ill, beloved family and friends move or plan to move away ( you know who you are), relationships change! Your precious reputation or status in the workplace, home or church change, fall apart, fall short of the goals you set for yourself. Spouses, children, parents, and grandparents fall short of your expectations and you fall short of theirs. And the conclusion that you come to is, life is filled with disappointment and opportunities to despair. The good things you enjoy and are not wrong to enjoy, at some point in time can be taken away. Does this sound like Matthew 6 to you? Moth and rust destroy! The stuff we love and treasure doesn't really last. The things we work so hard for are very, very temporary. Disappointment, disappointment, disappointment! But not so for the one who has Jesus!

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Those of us who have peace with God through Jesus have something that can never be disappointing! We have hope that doesn't disappoint! We have something that can never be taken away from us! We have what is imperishable, a treasure that no one can take and no one can destroy! Hallelujah!

We, along with the Psalmist, King David, can live in joy and contentment even in times of extreme trial and great loss; if our hearts are as captivated by the savior as his was: One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple. Psalm 27:4

If Jesus is who I treasure, my highest goal, greatest desire, and all my hopes and dreams are wrapped up in Him, then life will still be joy-filled and free of total despair. And we can indeed cry out: I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

We taste and savor a hope in Jesus that is sure, not some vague hope that we are not able to be confident in. So, I have much more to be grateful for than the temporal blessing that I experience off and on, that are here today and gone the next.