. Common mercies. God has shown
kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of
food and fills your hearts with joy. . Acts 14, 17. We oftentimes forget that the
common mercies of life are evidences of our Father's loving thought
and care for His children. There is no such thing as chance
in this world. God sends the rains, orders the
seasons, and brings the harvests. In enjoying the gifts, we should
not forget the giver. In accepting and using the blessings,
we should not fail to see the hand which brings them to us. J. R. Miller What shall I render
unto the Lord for all His benefits to me? Psalm 116.12 The Christian,
as he journeys onwards in the pathway of life, ought frequently
to look back and review the way by which God has led him If we
would keep alive our gratitude, if we would have it to increase
more and more, until like a holy flame it burns within us, we
must often, in thought, retrace the varied turnings and windings
of our earthly pilgrimage. We are so prone, amid our daily
duties and our interaction with the world, to forget and overlook
the divine benefits received, that only by a careful and frequent
retrospect can we continue, from day to day, cherishing a spirit
of true and ever-increasing thankfulness to God. But, the oftener we make
the review, The greater cause we will have for saying with
David, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my father's house,
that you have brought me hitherto? Christian, you cannot indeed
reckon up all the benefits you have received from the hand of
God. for they are as numerous as the
stars of heaven, or the drops of the mighty ocean, your common
mercies, alas, too lightly valued. The air you breathe, the return
of the gladsome sunlight, the succession of the seasons, and
the quiet and gentle stillness and repose of night, all these,
with their unnumbered host of attendant blessings, are scattered
on your path." John Macduff. Let us praise God for common
mercies, for they prove to be uncommonly precious when they
are once taken away. Charles Spurgeon