• He, God, will be traveling in the boat with them; they will not be left alone.
• He, God, said, “Let us go across to the other side.” He did not say, “let us try to go to the other side.”

1. Feed your eternal spirit (read/mediate on Scripture) at least as often as you feed your temporal body (a minimum of 3 times per day)
2. Give God your first fruits by starting the day in thanksgiving, prayer and listening intently to His counsel through His word and worship Him in spirit and in truth
3. Look for opportunities to live out all that He is faithful to teach you. Be intentional. Don’t wait for opportunities to hit you over the head, seek them out and find someone to bless each day
4. Seek out occasions in which you can practice humility
5. When trials come your way, ask God two things: a) What lesson can I learn from this Lord? b) How can I use this experience to honor you and bring you glory?
6. End each day, repenting of any sins and thanking God for His faithfulness and mercy as you recount all His goodness to you.

"We also want to continue throughout the day expressing gratefulness for the innumerable manifestations of God's grace. It's as if God is placing sticky-notes in our lives as daily reminders of His presence and provision. They're everywhere. How alert and perceptive of them are you? Are you a thankful observer of the countless indications of His provision, His presence, His kindness, and His grace?

An ungrateful person is a proud person. If I'm ungrateful, I'm arrogant. And if I'm arrogant, I need to remember God doesn't sympathize with me in that arrogance; He is opposed to the proud."

~ C.J. Mahaney, HUMILITY: True Greatness 

(Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books,

a division of Random House, Inc., 2005), 71

"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load."

~ Galatians 6:3-5

"Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."

~ John 13:1

"It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look to himself."

~ John Calvin

1. Do you recognize that any act of kindness towards you, is the active demonstration of God's mercy poured out to you?
2. Or is your gratitude level dependent on the value you've put on any kindness shown to you (i.e., "It was a small thing for so and so to give me this or that", "I'll say "thank you" or respond to that person, when it's most convenient for me", "So and so ought to care for me this way, because I've given so much to others; now it's time for me to receive", etc.)?
3. What is your response to C.J. Mahaney's quote above?

"I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;

I will recount all of Your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in You;

I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."

~ Psalm 9:1-2

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison., as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

(**Incidentally,  the day I  had a bit of a tantrum due to my latest lab results, my oldest son asked me, "Mama, may I run a quick errand?" I said, "Sure!" A few minutes later he arrived  home with this beautiful bouquet of flowers, hoping to cheer me up. Am I a blessed woman or what? ♥)