Christian Gratitude and Assurance
The Christian is God's by creation, His by redemption, and His by regeneration. Every fiber of his being ought to respond in grateful praise to God's goodness. He has not only all the promise of "the life which now is" that other men have, but he has the assurance of the life "which is to come." He is assured that "God worketh all things with him for good" if he only loves God, and lives yielded to God's purpose. Therefore he can "rejoice evermore;" he can "in everything give thanks." Men may abuse him; he knows that it is worse for them than for him, because the injury to him is merely temporal at the most; the injury to them is that of character, which unless repented of is eternal. "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and they have no stumbling block."