Welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

I'm Bill Crowder, and I wrote today's reading titled A Thankful Heart.

Seneca, the great philosopher of ancient Rome, was once accused by the Empress Messalina of adultery.

After the Senate sentenced Seneca to death, the Emperor Claudius instead exiled him to Corsica,

perhaps because he suspected the charge was false.

This reprieve may have shaped Seneca's view of thankfulness when he wrote, homicides, tyrants, thieves,

adulterers, robbers, sacrilegious men, and traitors, there always will be, but worse than all

these is the crime of ingratitude. A contemporary of Seneca's, the Apostle Paul, may have agreed. In Romans

121, he wrote that one of the triggers for the downward collapse of humankind was that they

refused to give thanks to God. Writing to the church at Colossi, three times Paul challenged

his fellow believers in Christ to gratitude.

He said we should be overflowing with thankfulness.

As we let God's peace rule in our hearts, we're to respond with thankfulness.

In fact, gratitude ought to characterize our prayers.

God's great kindnesses to us remind us of one of life's

great realities. He not only deserves our love and worship, he also deserves our thankful hearts.

Everything that's good in life comes from him. With all we've been given in Christ,

gratitude should be as natural as breathing.

May we respond to God's gracious gifts by expressing our gratitude to Him.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Colossians chapter 4 verses 2 through 6.

Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful.

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.

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