Common mercies!

LISTEN to audio!  Download audio
(You will find it helpful to listen to the audio above, as you read the text below.)

"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 ofttimes 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 will we 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! are 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)