Gratefulness: What are you thankful for today?

Today, I am thankful for my family, church family, and friends! They are a blessing from God!

Daring Devotion Thoughts from Day 23: What an appropriate devotional today, for this Thanksgiving!

Today’s devotion is on John McCarthy, a missionary serving alongside Hudson Taylor in China, and focuses on Abiding in Christ. Listen to this quote from John McCarthy in a letter to a discouraged missionary, Hudson Taylor:

“Abiding, not striving or struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power … this is not new, and yet ’tis new to me.… Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy.“

What, you say, the great Hudson Taylor was discouraged? Yes. God used a fellow missionary to encourage his heart, to help him see that we look to and abide in Christ constantly to find unchanging joy.

Are you discouraged, exhausted, overwhelmed, striving to keep going? Abide in Him! He is our strength and power. For this, we can be truly grateful!

John 15:4-8, “⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ⁶ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. ⁸ Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”