How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me? Psalm 116:12, NIV

One of my favorite Norman Peale stories is about a man who came to him one day, completely broken and dejected. He declared that he had lost "everything". Dr. Peale asked him a series of questions: What about your wife, your family, your friends, your country? The man responded that his wife and children were wonderful - that without them he could have never made it. His friends, too, had been there for him offering their support wherever he might need it. He felt that the U.S.A. was the greatest nation on earth. "How about your faith?" The man said that he could not have survived without having relied upon God.

So, what was it that caused the man to feel that he had lost everything? He had suffered a severe financial setback and felt that he had lost everything that he had worked and struggled for. He thought that he had lost his life's work. When questioned about what he still had, the man realized that he had not lost anything that could not be replaced. His problem was one of priority - of understanding what was truly important.

Try this exercise: List the ten most important things in your life, starting with the most important. If you have a fine mind then you won't have to write it down. (I will use pen and paper - you can draw your own conclusions.) Now, look at your list. If your first item does not pertain to God and Christ , then you lose. You must start over. If the next several items do not include your family and friends then, again, you lose and must start over. In fact, if your list of things most important to you are, in fact, things, then you are going to be disappointed in life.

On the other hand, if the most important areas of your life are those items that cause you to fall on your knees, thanking the Lord for His blessings and causing you to ask yourself, "How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me?", then you win. Now help someone else to do the same! It is, after all, precisely what we are here for in the first place.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 

Psalm 125:1, NIV