“For one who has made thanksgiving the habit of his life, the morning prayer will be, ‘Lord, what will you give me today to offer back to you?’”

Leave it all in the Hands that were wounded for you

One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.

What I ought to do and what I feel like doing are seldom the same thing.

We have ample evidence that the Lord is able to guide. The promises cover every imaginable situation. All we need to do is to take the hand he stretches out.

You are loved with an everlasting love. And underneath are the everlasting arms.

Faith’s most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain.

It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place.

Until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship.

Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy.

A spirit of restlessness and resistance can never wait, but one who believes he is loved with an everlasting love, and knows that underneath are the everlasting arms, will find strength and peace.

We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.

To love God is to love His will. It is to wait quietly for life to be measured by One who knows us through and through. It is to be content with His timing and His wise appointment.

If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look ‘little’ or ‘big’.

Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ”in spirit and in truth.” Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.

When ours are interrupted, his are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable).

I believe with all my heart God’s Story has a happy ending. . . But not yet, not necessarily yet. It takes faith to hold on to that in the face of the great burden of experience, which seems to prove otherwise.

Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all.

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.

There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate.

I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.

The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

Mindful time spent with the person we love is the fullest expression of true love and real generosity.

It’s much easier to stay out of trouble now than to get out of trouble later.

Let us forget with generosity those who cannot love us.