Day 19 of Praise

Thank You, Lord, for the people who are a blessing to me…for family and friends and neighbors, for little children, for brothers and sisters in Christ, for colleagues and leaders, for pastors and teachers…and for others: our doctor, the postman, the plumber.  Thank You for the many ways You use these people to meet my needs, brighten my path, and lighten my load…to enrich my knowledge of You, and to counsel or correct or nourish me, building me up in the faith.  How good and how pleasant it is to enjoy rich fellowship with those who love You.  Thank You for bringing people into my life!

I thank You specifically for:

Yet, Lord, I also thank You that even the people I most admire have flaws—that only You are wonderful through and through, with no ugly edges, and that people, even at their best, cannot meet my deepest needs…that at times they misunderstand, they disappoint, they expect too much, or they can’t be available when I need them.  This makes me even more glad to have You as my best Friend, my wonderful Counselor, my ever-present help in trouble, immediately available around the clock, seven days a week.  How wonderful that I belong to You, the pure, unpolluted Source from which all downstream loves flow.  So I delight in people here on earth; but first and last I come to You, the only perfect Person, the only ideal Person, the only One whose love is flawless…the only One who is worthy of my highest praise.  O God, who is like You?  There is none to compare with You! 

I thank You for the friends who’ve failed

To meet my soul’s deep need;

They’ve driven me to the Savior’s feet

Upon His love to feed.

I’m grateful too, through all life’s way

No one could satisfy,

And so I’ve found in You alone

My rich, my full supply!

--Florence White Willett

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. …if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.  1 John 4:11-12

We love because He first loved us.  1 John 4:19