The Words of the Cooper Family

Home Service Content for May 12th 2013 – Being Grateful When Circumstances Change

Simon Cooper
May 10, 2013

How do you cope when the weather changes in your life?

(Please use this sheet as a general basis for study, prayer, and discussion for your home service. Feel free to add to it. You should also feel free to only use part of it. Go with your intuition and God's spirit.)

Sunny days and Rainy days: when circumstances change how do you manage yourself?

Change can often be challenging and can test our faith in God without us fully realizing it. Sometimes the constant ebb and flow of events gently erodes our confidence in or need for God's voice and God's presence in our life.

James 1: 2-4

1. Consider it pure joy,
2. My brothers and sisters,
3. Whenever you face trials of many kinds,
4. Because you know that the testing of your faith
5. Produces perseverance.
6. Let perseverance finish its work
7. So that you may be mature and complete,
8. Not lacking in anything.

Consider it pure joy:

Evaluate yourself on this test of faith: How quickly do I thank God when things go right and when things go wrong?

Give yourself a score from one to ten:

If you say "never", you rate yourself down at the bottom -- "1? or "0?.

If you say "Sometimes I thank God, I praise God in the middle of a problem," you get a "5?.

If you say: "I always do it. It's my habit to continually express gratitude when I'm dealing with a difficulty. Also when I receive good fortune I say thank you. I know God will help me when things are tough. I know when things go well I could not be where I am with out His love." You get a "10."

So, what score did you give yourself?

What could you do to consciously feel more thankful towards God in your daily life?

What can we learn about feeling gratitude towards God from our True Parents' long life?

"My wrists have met handcuffs many times, but I am not a person who perishes because of imprisonment. …

…Just as stronger light casts stronger shadows, harsher trials yield stronger graces."

Rev Sun Myung Moon

Conclusion:

I believe God has a purpose for my life and He's going to help me fulfill it if I walk together with Him.

God's purpose is greater and deeper than the success I am experiencing right now.

God's purpose is also greater and deeper than the pain and difficulty that I'm going through right now.

Offer this prayer: "GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." 

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