Thankfulness —John Calvin

“Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things (or in heavenly places) in Christ.” – Ephesians 1:3

“The chief sacrifice which God requires at men’s hands is that they should acknowledge His benefits and be thankful to Him for them…

For if a man asks us why we are found in this world, why God has such a care for us, why His goodness feeds and cherishes us, and finally why He, as it were, dazzles us with the great number of benefits He bestows upon us, it is in order that we should yield some acknowledgement of them to Him. For (as it is said in the psalm) we for our part cannot profit him at all, neither does He require anything else of us in exchange, but thanksgiving, according as it is said in Psalm 116, ‘What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits which I have received from Him, except to take the cup of salvation at His hand and to call upon His name?’…

It is true that the Holy Spirit often sets forth other reasons why we should magnify God’s name, as (for example) the order of nature, the fruits which the earth yields, the aid and help which God gives us, and other such things. And these are sufficient matter for which to praise God. But St. Paul leads us higher here, and will have us to glorify God above all things. He thinks it is not enough to own that God has placed us in the world and that he nourishes us here, and he provides all things needful during the passing of this transitory life, but he also says that God has chosen us to be heirs of His kingdom and of the heavenly life.

We are then doubly bound to God, and that, much more closely then ignorant and unbelieving wretches are. For although they are sufficiently indebted already, yet the good He has done us in Jesus Christ is beyond all comparison more excellent and noble, because He has adopted us to be His children.”

—John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians

love your enemies — St. Augustine

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” — Matthew 6:12

“…You have enemies. For who can live on this earth without them? Take heed to yourselves, love them. In no way can your enemy so hurt you by his violence, as you hurt yourself if you love him not. For he may injure your estate, or flocks, or house, or your man-servant, or your maid-servant, or your son, or your wife; or at most, if such power be given him, your body. But can he injure your soul, as you can yourself? Reach forward, dearly beloved, I beseech you, to this perfection. But have I given you this power? He only has given it to whom you say, “Your will be done as in heaven so in earth” (Matthew 6:10). Yet let it not seem impossible to you. I know, I have known by experience, that there are Christian men who do love their enemies. If it seem to you impossible, you will not do it. Believe then first that it can be done, and pray that the will of God may be done in you. For what good can your neighbor’s ill do you? If he had no ill, he would not even be your enemy. Wish him well then, that he may end his ill, and he will be your enemy no longer. For it is not the human nature in him that is at enmity with you, but his sin. Is he therefore your enemy, because he has a soul and body? In this he is as you are: you have a soul, and so has he: you have a body, and so has he. He is of the same substance as you are; you were made both out of the same earth, and quickened by the same Lord…” — St. Augustine

It is a most delightful felicitating knowledge, to know that Christ is in you — Richard Baxter

"It is a most delightful felicitating knowledge, to know that Christ is in you. If it be delightful to the rich to see their wealth, their houses, and lands, and goods, and money: and if it be delightful to the honourable to see their attendance, and hear their own commendations and applause; how delightful must it be to a true believer to find Christ within him, and to know his title to eternal life? If the knowledge of “full barns,” and “much goods laid up for many years,” can make a sensual worldling say, “Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry,” (Luke 12:19, 20,) methinks the knowledge of our interest in Christ and heaven, should make us say, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased,” (that is, more than corn and wine could put into theirs.) (Psal. 4:7.) “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” (Psal. 116:7.)" 

— Richard Baxter

in sensing oneself to be loved one learns to love — Adolphe Monod

“As you look upon God’s love, it will communicate itself to you and will renew your entire being. It is in sensing oneself to be loved that one learns to love. Self-centeredness reigns only because we are ignorant of God’s love: “Anyone who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8). You will love as you have been loved. You will love God, because God has first loved you. You will love your neighbor, because God has loved you both. Do you glimpse the new life that this change opens up for you?

I see you as “imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1), no longer living for anything except to pour out around you the love with which God has filled your hearts. I see you, following the example of Christ who loved you, “going about doing good” (see Acts 10:38) and finding your joy in privation, in fatigue, and in the sacrifices of charity. I see you “controlled by the love of Christ” (see 2 Corinthians 5:14); weaned from your self-will, from the love of money, and from the empty pleasures of the world; consoling the afflicted, relieving the poor, visiting the sick, and carrying Jesus Christ and all his blessings with you wherever you go.

Then the image and resemblance of God will have been formed anew in your heart! Then you will dwell in God and God in you! If being loved is the life of our soul, to love is its joy. If being loved is all the doctrine of the gospel, then to love is all of its ethic. To love as we have been loved is heaven on earth until such time as it becomes heaven in heaven.”

— Adolphe Monod, an undivided love: loving and living for Christ

look unto Jesus — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Christian joy is always a by-product of something else — our relationship with the Lord... The joy that Christians have is based on the realization of what they are, & therefore, to Christians, what they are is much more important than what they may feel like, much more important than what may be happening to them. The emphasis of all the New Testament writers, from the very beginning of the book of Acts onward — and it is particularly the theme of the epistles and is implicit in the Gospels as well — is for us to realize who and what we are. It is the failure to realize this that more commonly than anything else robs us of this joy and happiness that our Lord offers us...

Our joy is all dependent upon our relationship to Him (Christ), and the way to preserve joy, therefore, is not to be controlled and governed by our feelings and moods and states, nor by what is happening to us. If we are, we will be miserable because this is an evil world and there are evil people in it and because there is illness and accident and death and sorrow. So the way of the New Testament is not seeking joy but having certainty and assurance with regard to who we are, what we are, our relationship to Him, and all that is implicit in that.

And so my third proposition about the character of true joy and happiness is that the way to obtain it, therefore, is not to look into myself or to try to produce joy — never. It is always the result of “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). And that is the message of the entire New Testament — look unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)... In other words, you do not look into yourself — you look out from yourself and forget yourself, and you look at Him...

This is the only answer — “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). The way to get joy is to contemplate the glory of this blessed person. He is “the brightness of his [God’s] glory, and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). He is God the eternal Son. He is the one about whom we are concerned. He is the one who has come into this world in order to put us right with God. Whatever you may feel, whatever is happening to you, do not look at these things; look at Him, and realize that He is able to give you all you need and infinitely more.”

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The purpose of the Scriptures