Reminders From the Throne: Thankful Thoughts About Everyday Blessings

By Brenda Diamond

 One day at the close of my quiet time, as I was about to go about my day, the Lord convicted me about my lack of thankfulness. The Holy Spirit quietly said, “Why not stay awhile?” So, I sat in His presence a little longer, listened more closely, and convicted about often being in a hurry, asked God to give me a more grateful he

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jan 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640883208

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REMINDERS FROM THE THRONE

Thankful Thoughts About Everyday Blessings

Brenda Gail Diamond

Trilogy Christian Publishers

Tustin, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

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Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Gail Diamond

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Scripture quotations used in this book are from the Life Application Bible: New International Version, © 1995. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers; All rights reserved worldwide. www.tyndale.com.

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ISBN 978-1-64088-319-2

ISBN 978-1-64088-320-8 (ebook)

One day at the close of my quiet time, as I was about to go about my day, the Lord convicted me about my lack of thankfulness. The Holy Spirit quietly said, Why not stay awhile? So, I sat in His presence a little longer, listened more closely, and convicted about often being in a hurry, asked God to give me a more grateful heart, especially to spend more time with Him. The result was that each morning my prayers became not only more thankful, but these little lessons served as personal reminders to me of His grace.

Brenda Gail Diamond

A prayer before we start: Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, I implore You to use this book to change hearts, especially mine and anyone who needs a greater revelation of grace. Your Holy Spirit knows the words to be written. For that, I am eternally grateful. I am deeply grateful for my salvation and the relationship I have with Your Son, Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the lessons You have taught me and the changes in my life You have made by Your precious Holy Spirit. I ask that this be used for Your glory and the benefit of those in the Body of Christ, for whom Your beloved Son died. I humbly pray for the lost and sin-sick to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I also ask that these words will make an eternal difference in the Kingdom. May those who seek truth find You in these pages, for You are our only truth. And, lastly Lord, let me always be real. In laughter or tears, in seriousness or jest, let me be real, approachable, and sincere. In the name of Jesus, my precious Lord, Amen.

Introduction

About a year ago, the Lord convicted me about my lack of thankfulness. I know that everything comes from the Lord and I often expressed thanks to Him when I prayed. At least, I spoke the words, Thank you, a lot. Yet, I became convicted for not having a truly thankful heart: A heart that is always grateful. The Scriptures say that we are to be thankful in all things. You see, I felt as though I had not given testimony enough in my daily walk about the blessings of God in my life. I then committed to first begin my day with a prayer of thanksgiving, but then by focusing on one thing, I would spend time listening to Him about that one subject. So, in my quiet time, I studied and wrote. While committing that time to Him, I soon knew that what He was leading me to write was not just for me. I knew God was leading me to write and share what I wrote with others. When I pray, I sit with my Bible and I listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading and teaching.

The purpose of this book is to write things God has placed on my heart but also as a gift for you, the person who is reading this. I want you to know how honored I am that you would spend time reading these words. I pray you are blessed by them. Sometimes while sitting with God in the early mornings, I would hear a word or perhaps a verse of Scripture. Often, something would remind me of God’s love for me and a story would come from my time with God. Sometimes the words or phrases turned into stories and at other times, they would be devotions or short Bible lessons. Sometimes they were lessons God was teaching me with my children or grandchildren. Most contained scriptures, but others had practical application from lessons God had given me from the Bible. There is nothing deeply theological in these thankful thoughts of mine, but they all are based on the Scriptures. This is about the relationship God and I share. He speaks our language, knows our thoughts, sees our emotions, and deeply loves the time we give to Him. These little lessons are simply practical ways of showing how my loving Father has given me a word or verse; I would then sit with him and write; and never knowing what was going to be said, I would have a nice thankful lesson or story. I hope you will benefit from these little thankfuls and that you will share them with others. Every day, we must remember to ask God to help us have grateful hearts. We have so much for which to thank the Lord.

We must remember to never take our salvation for granted or the sacrifices that Jesus made for us. We must never forget to be thankful for the Body of Christ and those who are called alongside of us to encourage and help us. We must remember to pray for grateful spirits and those who have helped us along the way. The hands of the helpful are special gifts from God. In a world full of materialism, our hands often become too full and our time rushes by. We often take others for granted, as well as all of our blessings. Our holy, precious Lord deserves so much more, as do those around us we are called to love. An attitude of thanksgiving is something we all should possess every moment of the day. An attitude of thanksgiving would replace many of the problems we feel we have, if we would ask God to help us have more grateful hearts. I believe this is a timely, yet old lesson, that we should remember—or learn anew. It is very hard to count our blessings when our minds are filled with burdens and concerns. Instead, let us all become people who not only love the Lord and others, but love to share thanksgiving praises to Him, His people, and lost people every day. In today’s world with so much negativity and trouble, God’s people must be the light they were created to be. If we are negatively responding to life events rather than trusting God, what does that say to a lost and dying world? As God’s people we must remember to thank God and regain the joy of our salvation. I pray this helps you in your daily walk and throughout your life. We all will continue to follow the path the Lord has laid out for us. No matter if the road is difficult and narrow, we are to remain grateful that Jesus is walking with us. We give praise and thanksgiving that our precious Lord will never leave us alone to find our way. Each day, Lord, let me remain faithful.

Why Not Stay Awhile?

Every morning while the weather is nice, I sit outside. When the weather is cold, I stay inside and have my quiet time. I usually sit with my Bible, but not always. Sometimes, it is so important for me to just remember that God is always present with me. I know He is, but it is so easy in this life to fail to acknowledge His presence all the time. The only way to do this is to be still. The Bible tells us to Be still and know that He is God. We surrender our all to Him, give Him our time and concerns, and trust Him with everything. The world is filled with wonder and majesty. The world is also filled with confusion, chaos, and pain. We live here in this world, and as God’s people, we cannot successfully live without Him. He is never unaware of our trials or difficulties. He is never unaware of the blessings He provides daily for us either. He is very much aware that we are busy people. Sometimes, we are too busy to share time with Him. That became very clear to me in 1993, and it broke my heart. A professing Christian being busy about God stuff and yet I was too busy to be still with the One who loved me most. Everything changed from that point and I became busy in other ways.

Our house was robbed. I went to the local jail to teach the Bible to women. I found there that many were unable to read. How could anyone impress on someone the importance of Bible reading if they could not read at all? How could women in the Bible Belt not know that Easter was about the Cross? I was hurt, but I was also mad. I was angry at my robbers (God convicted me quickly!) I was mad at my culture (God convicted me quickly!) I was angry at my country (God convicted me quickly!) I was angry and disillusioned and God confronted and convicted me about my stinking attitude and I cried a lot in those days. I was later divorced and hurt. So, I did what my Father had taught me to do. I stayed close to Him while He stayed close to me; and He healed my angry, broken heart. It was a timely, lonely, costly investment; but it worked! When I was pliable again, I returned to school. Transition is awfully hard, isn’t it? Transition is necessary and has to happen in life, so I studied Bible, while sitting with God in prayer, and I healed. That is an old fashioned method and many are not willing to submit to it these days, but it the best way I have found that is guaranteed to work. While professionals are wonderful, for me personally, that was not the first thing. God was priority. With healing, came more growth. And, I began writing.

I have always written, but kept my writings hidden and protected. I knew God would reveal His timing to share the things I had written. I truly believed that without education, it was dangerous to write about the Lord and His Word. Ignorance of the Scriptures scares me, but especially does it scare me, when it is used incorrectly. I knew the responsibility Scripture carried; thus, the reason for my return to school. God had taught me; but I needed more, and godly teachers provided that.

After attending school studying Bible, I began work with abused children and traumatized families. I believe God took me on a different path of education for one main reason. I truly believe I could never have taught the Bible’s truth in earnest without understanding the devastation and evil of child sexual and physical abuse. Nothing destroys like the devil and He is determined to destroy the lives of the young and unborn. The horrors of physical and sexual abuse are nothing short of the greatest accomplishments of the devil. People often ask, How does this happen? Why does this happen? The answer is simple. Abuse is just purely evil. To understand and know the love of the Lord and His Word, I believe God wanted me to understand the absolutely wicked destruction and tactics of the devil regarding abuse. The love of God as opposed by the evil of the devil is so apparent in our world these days. Evil does this by destroying families in so many ways. Drugs and abuse are rampant today, all resources the enemy uses against our human weaknesses to destroy us. Sin manifests in many forms, but this is something that our culture is deeply plagued by. God hates the destruction of innocent lives and destroying babies and children’s lives is one of the greatest evils of our time. I knew what evil was, but after witnessing the horrors of abuse, I knew how evil evil truly was! Were it not for personally experiencing the great love of God, I would never have understood this.

I now find myself retired. My life has changed again. Life does that all the time. Life brings changes. The challenge is to conform to what God is doing within us and around us in those changes, if we allow Him to do that. We are not to be conformed to the world, but our minds are to be transformed to be more like Christ! I want to continue growing and maturing in Christ every day of my life until I die. Some people fight change. I admit it is not always easy, but nothing remains the same. I am now in another season of change, and I am thankful God has given me this opportunity to share His love with others.

Recently, while sipping my coffee outside under a crystal clear, blue sky, I had finished my devotion time. (Or so I thought!) As I was about to get up from my chair, I heard this from