101 Notes of Thanksgiving
By Pauline Creeden
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Pauline Creeden
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Smashwords Edition, Liscense Notes
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101 Notes of Thanksgiving
Scriptures and Meditations on God’s Promises
Written by Pauline Creeden
Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved by the author – Pauline Creeden
http://pcreedenbooks.blogspot.com
email the author at pcreedenbooks@gmail.com
& follow me on twitter: @P_Creeden
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the author.
Churches and other non-commercial interests my reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of the author, provided that the text does not exceed ten percent of the entire book.
Cover photo courtesy of http://photosforsouls.com
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the AMPLIFIED BIBLE Copyright ©1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman foundation.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the NEW KING JAMES VERSION Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
About the Author: Pauline Creeden is an avid reader, reviewer, and writer. When she is not training horses and riders for the show ring, she reviews for Thomas Nelson Publishers, Amazon.com, Tyndale, Zondervan, and many others. Her articles have been published in Christian Magazines, and on her blogs. The quotes throughout this text are portions of those articles.
Acknowledgements and Note from the Author: Thank you to my husband for his continued support and love for me. I have to thank my friends at Christian Writers and CIAindie, without your encouragement and advice, this book would never have been published. Finally, thank you reader for taking the time to pick up this book. It is my hope that you will be blessed with a deeper understanding and relationship with your Jesus.
1. We are never an inconvenience to Him, and He will never stop loving us.
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2. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)
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3. God is not some distant, far-away, absentee father. No, He is present, He cares, and He doesn’t want you to worry.
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4. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)
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5. God loves you more than a mother loves her infant child.
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6. The Lord answered and said: Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will never forget you. (Isaiah 49:15 AMP)
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7. Jesus has the scars that prove His love for you.
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8. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted [tattooed a picture of] you on the palm of each of my hands; (Isaiah 49:16 AMP)
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9. As a child of God, He has separated you from your sin.
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10. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12 AMP)
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11. God gives you an inheritance with Jesus.
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12. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. (Romans 8:17 AMP)
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13. God hears and answers your prayers.
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14. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps knocking, [the door] will be opened. (Matt 7:8 AMP)
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15. God has promised not to save you only, but your whole family.
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16. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ [give yourself up to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into his keeping] and you will be saved, [and this applies both to] you and your household as well. (Acts 16:31 AMP)
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17. God is always aware of what you are going through, He never misses a moment.
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18. He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved: He Who keeps you will not slumber. (Psalm 121:3 AMP)
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19. Jesus understands everything that you are going through because He has gone through it, too.
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20. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. (Hebrews 4:15 AMP)
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21. And because God understands, he always provides us with the means to overcome our temptations.
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22. He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation, He will [always] also provide the way out [the means of escape to a landing place], that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently. (1 Corinthians 10:13 AMP)
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23. Adversity and loss can often become the rudder by which our life is steered to come closer to God. We re-prioritize and discover what really has importance, and what remains shallow and unworthy of our time and energies.
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24. Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
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25. Satan foretells a barren future, but God’s promises are pregnant with hope.
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26. And provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:3)
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27. God gives us grace for today. He tells us to trust Him about the rest. He tells us to believe Him for the best.
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28. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise. (Psalm 106:12)
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29. Low is not where God wants you to be. How many times does He say He wants to lift you up? When you start to feel down in the dumps, stop your train of thought, count your blessings and tell Satan to get behind you. Look at the inward things and stop looking at the outward.
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30. Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
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31. The problem with our society is that we have lost our work ethic. All work is considered too hard, and the feeling of accomplishment gained from working has been lost. Working toward accomplishment is what the life in Jesus is about. If I listen to God, I mean really listen and do what He tells me to do, because He will give me the power to do it.
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32. Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)
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33. Humility is seeing yourself as God sees you. It is not what you do or what you look like that matters to God – so these things shouldn’t be your focus.
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34. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7b)
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35. Anything that can be seen by people at all (giving to the poor, prophesying, doing good deeds) is not what God looks at. He looks at what is done in secret so that He can reward you openly. So what do you do in secret?
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36. That your charitable deed may be in secret; and your father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. (Matthew 6:4 NKJV)
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37. The world needs us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To work and be fruitful for the Lord is what is required. God wants us to be light and salt. If we hide Him in our hearts, who will ever know the secret?
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38. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15 NIV)
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39. And that is the secret. In this passage from Hebrews lies the formula for becoming the best sort of Christian. When you open your mouth, do not be afraid to say His name. But! When you open your mouth, be sure that praise is what comes out continually!
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40. That my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. LORD my God, I will praise you forever. (Psalm 30:12 NIV)
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41. Think about it! If when you say His name in praise, how can you then be judgmental? If you say His name in praise, how can you not bring healing? Bring about the JOY of the Lord by being a Praise Warrior for Him!
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42. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. (Psalm 145:3)
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43. When the battle is too much for you, do not surrender to the enemy, surrender to God. He will give you the strength you need to withstand the forces against you. Trust Him, and He will give you reason to praise Him. For contained within that praise is the power to trust Him and to make a change in your life.
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44. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. (Psalm 28:7)
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45. This world wants to surround us with fear. The Bible admonishes us to be courageous, and counsels us to have no fear over and over in many ways.
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46. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2Timothy 1:7)
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47. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them for the LORD your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
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48. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 118:6)
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49. In our instant results world we have no patience anymore. Yes, sometimes God does instant miracles, but more often than not, He’s interested in slow, permanent change.
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50. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and you inherit the land. (Exodus 23:29-30 NKJV)
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51. Little by little. God is preparing you for something here. He’s making sure that your faith has increased and your relationship with Him is solid before you inherit the land He has prepared for you. He doesn’t want your victory to be desolate – and the “beasts” of pride and self-satisfaction to overcome the glory that He should receive in this.
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52. I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
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53. Hurry and worry are sisters, and often go along hand in hand with each other. In order to be in tune and on the same wavelength as our God, we are to be patient and to wait on Him. When we are in a hurry, it causes us anxiety, and gives us a false feeling of being in control. It actually causes us to worry: since Jesus told us not to worry, shouldn’t we also not hurry?
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54. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6 NKJV)
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55. God constantly asks us to wait for Him. But in our hurry we often leave Him behind.
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56. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. (Psalm 130:5 NKJV)
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57. God chooses on purpose people who cannot do what He asks them to do. He does this so that there is no question as to Who has accomplished this task. Again I say that He specializes in making people the opposite of what they used to be.
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58. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV)
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59. He has promised that no matter how much we feel the pressures that surround us will kill us – He will make sure they do not. The fires of anger that burn around us - will not scorch us. The deluge of troubles that threaten to drown us in despair - will not overcome us.
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60. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not over flow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. (Isaiah 43:2)
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61. But when life seems to be pressing in on you from every side: it comes from the right, left, front and back. Realize now that there are two openings – up and down. We may not be responsible for our circumstances, but we are responsible for how we respond to them.
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62. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)
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63. Giving it up to God is different from just “giving up.” Giving our temptation up to God is the opposite of “giving up,” because if we simply gave in, we’d indulge the sin. When we give it up to God, we are realizing that the battle is too great for us. Before we even try to fight it, we see that we’re outnumbered, out-muscled, and overwhelmed. That’s why God wants us to give it up to Him. We don’t have the ability fight it by ourselves.
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64. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, He increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29 NKJV)
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65. Simply by BELIEVING you have already overcome the world. You have already overcome your sin. You need to believe it and walk in it, no matter what anyone or anything else says.
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66. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5)
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67. If I only do something for the results I get, won’t that make me easy to manipulate? Satan could use that to his advantage quite simply. He could tempt me just enough to show no progress so that I give up. Two steps forward – two steps back again. He doesn’t need me to do anything but give up. Taking a step back is not a failure. Falling down is not a failure. It is all part of the process. The only way that I become a failure is to give up. By giving up I stop trusting God, I stop believing in Jesus, and I become overcome by the world.
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68. Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us. (Romans 8:37 AMP)
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69. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, I am in right standing with God. He doesn’t reject me. Nothing that I can do will drive Him away from me.
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70. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
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71. When we walk according to the Spirit, we will not have condemnation, because Satan cannot condemn us. But if we try to walk in the flesh (in sin) then Satan has the right to condemn us. So this is why we don’t want to allow sin in our lives. This is why it is so important to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and walk in the spirit so that we don’t fulfill the desires of the Flesh.
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72. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)
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73. By believing in Jesus, and accepting His sacrifice, I have already overcome the world. Jesus has already put me in right standing with God, and nothing that I do in this life will separate me from Him.
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74. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
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75. Jesus is amazing! His grace covers all our transgressions. There is nothing that you are going to do that isn't already covered by His grace.
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76. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. (Psalm 118:31)
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77. Jesus DAILY bears our BURDENS. Every day! He knows what I am going through. And though it may seem so trivial what I have endured today when I look at what others are going through, sometimes it seems I'd rather die than do this yet another day. So I am happy to have His help.
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78. Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Selah. (Psalm 68:9)
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79. Let us always praise His name - in times of joy, in times of tribulation, in times of sorrow, in times of victory, and in times of defeat. When we feel the most depressed, the farthest from God - let us praise His name, even when we don't FEEL like it - because the sounds of God's people praising God makes the powers of darkness tremble, and gives us victory even when we feel defeated.
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80. That my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. LORD my God, I will praise you forever. (Psalm 30:12)
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81. We can be called “more than conquerors,” in Romans 8:37, because nothing can keep us down. We don’t fail once and for all, but eventually we win, as long as we believe, keep trying, and let Jesus help us up.
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82. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)
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83. God gives us no orders, no rules to follow, without providing the means to do what He asks us to accomplish.
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84. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)
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85. No matter how far away from the Master we have wondered away, He will search for us and call us until His work is complete.
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86. Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine and go after the one? (Matthew 18:12 MSG)
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87. There is nothing that we can’t do, no way we can lose if we rely on Jesus.
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88. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:7)
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89. When we are weak, He is strong. When we feel defenseless, He defends us. When we have no hope, he becomes our salvation and hope.
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90. “The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)
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91. Because our battle is not against flesh and blood, but in the spiritual realm, Praise is one of our greatest weapons.
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92. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. (Psalm 8:2)
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93. He saves each one of us personally, so that we see how He loves each one of us. He comes to our rescue so that we never forget what He did for us.
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94. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. (Deuteronomy 10:21)
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96. When we trust God, we believe His promises. It is that trust that builds the unbreakable bond of relationship with our God worth being thankful for.
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97. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise. (Psalm 106:12)
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98. God is the God who heals. He saves us from the hurts and sicknesses that we’ve been diagnosed with. No matter what our problem, God is the solution.
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99.Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. (Jeremiah 17:14)
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100. God has chosen each one of us to be special. He didn’t leave us in the dark to be lost without him.
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101. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
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Thank you for reading!
To find more thoughts on scripture like these,
See the other books by this author:
THE PRODIGAL LIFE: COMING ALL THE WAY HOME TO GOD
101 FAITH NOTES
Coming April 2011- 101 Ways of Grace
Or follow Pauline Creeden’s blog