“But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more.”  Ps.71:14

Notice the psalmist doesn’t say that he will praise God “yet more and more” if God provides enough material in his life to be worthy of praise. Rather, he says he “will hope continually (italics mine)”. Ongoing hope can never be rooted in the circumstances of life, for they are too fickle and variable to warrant such hope. Only an eternally kind, unchanging God is worthy of such confidence.

Few things will more quickly upgrade the quality of our lives or the increase glory that we bring to God than expanding the borders of our gratitude. What I mean by this is cultivating the ability to genuinely give thanks for those things we normally take for granted. Or finding new avenues of gratitude for things we had never seen before. It means repenting of the spirit of entitlement which plagues all of us, and pushing forward our praise and thanksgiving into domains we don’t often think to go. Like having a roof over our head. Like having air-conditioning or heating. Like having food on the table (for most of us, more than enough food). Like having a car. Like being able to read. Like being able to hear. Like being able to walk. On and on it goes. And most of all, for being on our way to heaven with sins forgiven because of the blood of the perfect, spotless, Lamb of God.

Matthew Henry was a great bible expositor and English clergyman who lived from 1662 to 1714. Once he was robbed while out on horseback. That night he wrote in his journal, “I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.” That, my friends, is what I mean by expanding the borders of our gratitude. May we each follow in his footsteps!