{"id":1028,"date":"2012-09-11T14:36:08","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T18:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2012-09-11T14:36:08","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T18:36:08","slug":"gratitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=1028","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was griping and complaining.<\/p>\n

Poor\u00a0ole me had to stand on\u00a0a long line at Port Authority. I was annoyed because I had left early from work to get home and do laundry. I was beside myself because “my” plan wasn’t working out.<\/p>\n

While I was waiting for the line to move, I started scanning through Facebook. I came across a status update regarding someone in another country\u00a0who works seven days\u00a0from 8:30am until 8:00pm\u00a0for\u00a0only $3.00 a week. I was immediately convicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here I\u00a0was complaining, but I have so much to be grateful for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

This morning I started\u00a0thinking about how big God is. I had this moment at rush hour\u00a0where I saw humans as little specks\u00a0or ants. We don’t want to see ourselves as small. Our ego and pride gets in the way of allowing us to see our true state.<\/p>\n

We think we are bigger and mightier than we are. But we are not. We are frail, we are weak and we are powerless.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can see your grimace… \u00a0It hurts doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Yes, it hurts our flesh because we long to matter, to have significance and make a mark in this world. The fact that we don’t have as much control as we think, terrifies us.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul says, “for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10<\/a>)<\/p>\n

What a\u00a0contradiction from what\u00a0the world tells\u00a0us. The world tells\u00a0us to be strong and not to show weakness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the truth is,\u00a0when we surrender and reach the end of ourselves, is when\u00a0God’s power is made manifest.\u00a0(Romans 8:11<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Let me give you an example. While I was\u00a0in physical therapy today. I started trying to help out my physical therapist. He starts laughing and says, “Hey, stop being so independent, you are messing things up here.”\u00a0 I have a bad habit of meddling and trying to help, instead of allowing others to do their job.<\/p>\n

Guess what? This is exactly what we do with the Holy Spirit. We try to help Him out. In the process of trying to help\u00a0Him out, we mess things up. We get in the way of allowing Him to do what He does best.<\/p>\n

Today I am grateful for\u00a0Jesus, all His blessings and provisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you.” (Philippians 2:13-15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In conclusion, I am remembering and praying for all the families today.<\/p>\n

What are you grateful for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was griping and complaining. Poor\u00a0ole me had to stand on\u00a0a long line at Port Authority. I was annoyed because I had left early from work to get home and do laundry. I was beside myself because “my” plan wasn’t working out. While I was waiting for the line to move, I started scanning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1033,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}