Spotlight 05/2016: The road to victory is paved with thankfulness

if you want to win, you have to make sacrifices. and those who offer thanks are on the right way, district apostle rainer storck (north rhine-westphalia/germany) says. but how does this go together with our 2016 motto “victory with christ”? we have taken our first steps in the year 2016. our chief apostle has given us thoughts on the topic “victory with christ”, based on the words from 1 corinthians 15: 57: “but thanks be to god, who gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ.” so victory with christ seems to go hand in hand with a certain sense of gratitude. between predictable and unpredictable. to a certain degree, the year we have begun is predictable. we know, for example, that our children will begin school, others will leave school and move on to college or university. we may be aware of changes in our lives or in our career that we will have to deal with. other things, on the other hand, are completely unpredictable. many who are sick and who are going through trials are hoping for an improvement in their circumstances. some may be facing uncertainty. guidance from the psalms. whatever the circumstances may be, i encourage you to go through the year with a prevailing mood of gratitude; because gratitude obviously is the key to gaining victory with christ and experiencing the help of god. this reminds me especially of asaph, who has left us many psalms. in psalm 50: 23 he wrote: “whoever offers praise glorifies me; and to him who orders his conduct aright i will show the salvation of god.” he even goes so far as to speak about offering praise. offering praise is more than merely saying thank you for something we have received. gratitude as a prevailing mood. being thankful and offering praise also means sticking to the path of gratitude even when the circumstances are difficult, when we are not well, when we do not have much strength and are going through unpleasant situations. it also means that we do not forget from whom everything comes. that is the right way to show gratitude, and to praise and glorify god. and then, so the psalmist, we will be able to walk a way on which god will show us his salvation. or, as expressed with the words of our 2016 motto, gain the victory with christ. let us go through the year with this prevailing sentiment of gratitude and with it create the conditions so that we can gain victories with christ.