Charles Dickens famous quotation, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.”

Let us be those that decide that we will embrace the best of times with everything before us .....with an attitude of thanksgiving and optimism giving thanks for all things even in this climate where everyone around us is saying that this is the worst of times ...with nothing before us but more of the same....

The best of times are forged on the anvil of difficulty and fashioned with the different tools that others use in the worst of times. Attitude. Optimism. Thanksgiving. Faith. Hope and Love. These are the tools that will help us shape our future. If we have any other view we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

We give thanks for all the blessings God has given us and especially for those people he has brought into our lives. We know that we are all blessed with his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. We want us all to have the same attitude he had. Full of joy and optimism, knowing his plans for both our present and future are good.

Our faith is in him. Our hope is in him. Our love is for him. Because he first loves us he has become our first love. Out of that love grows our love for one another and for others. Let us love one another for love is of God for God is love. Love is the greatest because when we see him as he really is and faith and hope are no longer needed. Love remains!

He loves you. He has loved you from before the creation of the earth. He loves you with everlasting love. Let us live with our lives hidden in him, expressing his love to others and transforming this world into the dwelling place of the one true living God as we worship him and do his will until all of plans and purposes are fulfilled on earth as they are in heaven.

These are the best of times and we have everything before us. Let us enter into what he has prepared for those who love him and are called according to his purposes. Let us give thanks for all he has done and will do in this season of great harvest. We thank God for you and look forward to walking with him with you in the coming days.

We were created for such a time as this.

David at The Gate DC