Our Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Romans 14:7

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

To live for ourselves alone is evidence that we are strangers to Jesus Christ.  If it is our main purpose to gratify our flesh, to gain material things and to become the center of our social activities, it is evidence that we are not living according to the Good News of the Gospel. 

The church is called the Body of Christ because we are all one in Christ.  Each one of us is inseparable from the other.  Each one of us is inseparable from Our Savior.  We are all different in our strengths, our capabilities and our practices.  Yet we all are the Lord's.  We should all be looking to serve and prove ourselves as witnesses to Him.  The spiritual health of others should be as important to us as our own spiritual health.  The Body of Christ depends on our acceptance of our responsibility to be poured out for Christ.

No one who has given his or her life to Christ is a self-seeker.  The true purpose of our lives is to please God not ourselves.  Through the grace of God, we are able to identify fully with both the life and the death of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.  Let us search our own lives to insure that we are approving ourselves to Christ in service to all mankind.  Let our lives be living testimonies to our thanks for all that Jesus has done for us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You provide that we may not live for ourselves but that we may live for Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We bless the name of Jesus who died for us so that we may live for Him and serve Him in the Body of Christ.  Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to be responsible members of the Body of Christ.  We ask, dear Jesus, that You help us to understand that our sufficiency is in You and not in ourselves.  Guide us to the strengths, the capacities and the processes that You have set aside for us to serve You.  Allow our lives as Your servants to be our proclamation of thanksgiving for all that You have provided.  We ask all these things in the Righteous and Holy Name of Jesus Christ.