How Do I Say "Thank You" ?

Have you ever stopped to say "thank you". . . I mean really stop to thank God for every good thing that comes from His hand?  It's a delightful and captivating exercise that brings health to the soul (and the body)!   Begin wherever you wish, with the immediate and trivial or the more weighty things of life. Just beware that once you step into this state of thankfulness you might be there for a long while, for the Father's gifts are as limitless as his love that knows no bounds.

Thank you for the friend who took extra time to try and fix my car last night.
Thank you for the sun that shone today and warmed up my cold nose.
Thank you for clean, running water and a warm bed.
Thank you for wireless internet.
Thank you for indoor plumbing.
Thank you for the conviction of sin that leads me to repentance.
Thank you that I was made for eternity.
Thank you that the future ahead of me is always wilder and brighter than my current experience.
Thank you for my supporters who pray for me, give financially, send cards, and invest time and relationship with me.

Today, I received a financial update in regards to those who have given so sacrificially to the ministry here in New Zealand.  It has been many months since I have received information of this type, so I was quite blessed to read names of supporters who up to this point had remained anonymous to me.

So how do I say "THANK YOU" to God who has called me to serve and learn in this little town on the top of the bottom of the world?  How do I say "THANK YOU" to many of YOU who have invested resources, time and prayers on my behalf?

The only proper response, the only way to adequately say "THANK YOU" is to carry-on with the work Christ has placed before me and pursue a life of holiness.  The words of Isaac Watts in his beloved hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"couldn't say it better:

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

Because I will never be able to write enough letters or give enough hugs or say enough "THANK YOU"s to the Father for giving me YOU, I will do the only thing I know to do. . .

Continue to "Do[my]  best to present [myself] to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." ~ 2 Timothy 2:15