Remembrance Sunday Is A Day For Gratitude, For Blessings.

The hope of glory.

Now there’s that word again, hope, hope of glory, Jesus is our hope. Jesus is the one who brings the light into our darkest hours … when all else fails … and Jesus is the one who still loves us … when everyone deserts us … yet he is the one who still listens to us, because he really wants us … as he is the only one who can bring glorify to us, when all hope has gone.

Listen to the words of Jesus, words of both hope and glory in John 15:9-13: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. … I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: love one another as I have loved you. … You are my friends, and if you do what I command … I will share everything that I have learned from my Father. … You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you so that you may go forth and bear fruit – fruit that will last – AND that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you.

What powerful verses, there is so much to hope for in there. Jesus loved us enough to go to the cross and die for us, that we might live. … His death and sacrifice paid the price for both our Sin and Death. … Sin that we be forgiven before the father, and death that we look forward to his kingdom when we die. … As Jesus paid the price for all who place their trust in Him … what then should we fear … because no greater love can, or ever will … be shown to us.

But there is a catch, because in return, Jesus expects us to die for Him. … He expects us to die a death … not a physical death, but the death of our sinful nature. You know, that part of us that says, “I want”, “I demand”, “I must have”, “it’s all about me, me, and me. … Jesus demands that we stop living for ourselves … and start living for him; so that we can become closer to Him … to understand him … to learn from him, that we may receive from God the father, and as we have just read: “that whatever we ask in his name, the father will give us”.

One of the best and easiest ways to do this, is by being grateful, and by showing our gratitude to anything, and everything that pleases us. … Anything from a blast fresh breath of air, upwards, because if we cannot be grateful with the small things in life, we will never be grateful for anything significant or substantial.

Gratitude and love are related, they are very similar qualities, and its hard to have one without the other. … By displaying our gratitude towards something, we are in effect showing love towards that thing.

How often do we take time, to thank God for something, or something that he has done, or shown us in our lives? … How often do we just stop, and just appreciate the moment, and thank Him for being present in that moment?

Here’s a question … do we want more blessings in our lives? … Of course, we do … then to receive more, we must should start by thanking the Lord more, more than we do now. To start thanking him for the blessings we already have in our lives … because somehow, the lord seems to respond to that … because the more we thank him, the more he gives us to bless in return. … Have you ever noticed that … no matter how poor and deprived you think you are, give it chance, and you will be very pleasantly surprised how much you have, and how lucky we are.