Thought for the Week

Dissatisfaction pervades our culture. Even when the sun is shining, we Scots can complain about it.

Add to that the problems with our job, salary, homes, bodies, families, government or indeed our church, and we are so often bellyaching about something not being what it ought to be.

St Paul wrote “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… and be thankful. …with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:15-17)

We are to be at peace, to “be thankful”, to “sing with gratitude” and do everything “giving thanks to God the Father”.

Thankfulness - consciously calling to mind all of God’s goodness to us – is the antidote to dissatisfaction.

Every week in worship, and each day in prayer, Christians give thanks to God.

Not because God is like a sad old aunt who, having given us the annual present, waits demanding the thank-you letter as a condition of future gifts, but because “it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High” (Psalm 92).

Thanksgiving isn’t just words, but a way of life: a way of contentment, of learning to appreciate what we have, and trusting in the goodness of God who has given so much.

Why not stop now and consider all that you have? Ponder all that is good about our community.

Take a walk through Overtoun Park and ponder the beauty of Creation. And give thanks to the God who made it all.

You might even feel a hymn coming on. If not, come and let us teach you one on Sunday.