Remembrance Sunday Is A Day For Gratitude, For Blessings.

Now, we can certainly find time to stop and complain, and we can all do that … but by finding the time to appreciate something puts us into a completely different realm … a realm where we start looking for something to appreciate … and actually finding something to appreciate … and a realm where things of value suddenly appear, and come our way.

This is the way of our Lord, and it is not the way of this world. The way of the world is like our media, our news media, who are always finding something bad or something worrying to report on.

This then is a good time to remind ourselves of one of the oldest books in the bible, the book of Job, in particular, Job 3:25 which says, “What I feared has come upon me, what I dreaded has happened to me”. What I feared, has happened. … There is nothing new here, but for some reason we are all guilty of focusing on the bad or those things which we fear.

Can you see now, that the way of the Lord is the exact opposite … because when we stop and thank him for something … that thing grows, and becomes attracted towards us. … And if you think about it, we are only going to thank him for things we like. … We cannot lose, the more we focus on the good, and thank him for the things that bless us, the easier it is for us to grow and grow … and the healthier and better off, we become.

We must therefore choose what we should be focusing on. … If it is fear and destruction, we will find it, and plenty of it … much to the detriment of others. Whereas, if we consume ourselves with gratitude, love and blessings for the things we like, guess what, we will find more and more of them in our lives too, and … be a blessing to others.

All of us have many things to be thankful for, if we only but look. All of us have experienced love, mercy and grace at some point in our lives. … All I am saying this morning is, when we see something we like, we need to get into the habit of taking time to appreciating that which we like … and start enjoying the moment … and I guarantee you; it will change your life.

By thanking God for what he has done, he will in turn bless us by giving us more of what we like, more of what we are thanking him for, and more importantly, we are beginning to communicate with the Lord in a more effective way.

God is everywhere, God is with us, God is always with us. There is no place that we can go to escape the loving presence of the Lord. Yet, sometimes life takes its toll, and takes the legs clean away from us … and when it does, our first reaction is to ask, where is God in this situation. … We have all been there, but what I am saying this morning, is that there is nowhere we can go without finding something, to thank him for, even if it’s just the air we breathe, and our good health, (or the good parts of us that are still working). … If we can only thank him for one small thing, we are witnessing his very presence, and welcoming him into our lives.

As long as we can thank him, he is there. … Today is the day we remember, and show our gratitude to those who died and suffered in war, and the freedom we enjoy as a result. Today we also with gratitude, remember Jesus, who also suffered and died, that we may enjoy everlasting life. Today we also take time to thank him for the good things in our lives, that they may grow and develop.

True gratitude therefore demonstrates the love of God. True gratitude shows us his presence in our lives. True gratitude also gives us a chance to grow, with hope for our future.

Amen.