Pizza Ranch Serves

This week on pizzaranchserves.com there have been posts on gratitude, and they have really hit me. Ephesians 5:20 talks about having gratitude to God in everything. It’s a key verse in the Book of Ephesians so, it’s not just a good idea. The Lord is instructing us to do this, to make gratitude an intentional habit. Gratitude is an act of obedience.

Sometimes God has to put us in the most lowly, vulnerable positions before we are ready to hear and see what he has prepared for us. Last year I experienced that as I battled through a series of struggles with Depression. At one point my negative thoughts overwhelmed me and I imagined that the world would be better off without me in it. Thankfully, I was honest with my husband and he took me to the local Emergency Room where I received compassionate care that placed me with the professionals who would best help me through my lowest point. It was during a hospitalization that I spent hours and hours in God's Word and began to feel Him once again.

I’ve always respected folks who adopt children. The idea of changing the trajectory of a child’s life is admirable. It’s so amazing to me that a child becomes a part of a new family and is given all the rights that come with it.

God empowers, strengthens, and uses all those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior. Most of us would consider ourselves as unworthy or unusable.…

Advent is a time of preparation. It helps us prepare our hearts, minds, and spirits for the true meaning of Christmas. Advent includes the…

Advent is a time of preparation. It helps us prepare our hearts, minds, and spirits for the true meaning of Christmas. Advent includes the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and points us

Peace Advent is a time of preparation. It helps us prepare our hearts, minds, and spirits for the true meaning of Christmas. Advent includes the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas,

We’re going to be looking at the four weeks of Advent. Advent is a season of preparation. It’s for us to prepare our hearts, minds, and spirits for the true meaning of Christmas. We want to be a living example of the hope, peace, joy and love that the birth of Jesus brings. All of the OT passages that point to the Savior bring hope.

Today we're sharing one of our devotions from last year that is still true today. We pray you find blessings in this message:

I’ve heard many people in the course of my life ask me “How do I get closer to God?” or, “How can I get my prayer life better?” In a devotional I read recently, I was reminded of the answer to these questions. I believe that the fastest way to get closer to God, and have a better prayer life, is by having a thankful heart. To be thanking God throughout the day.

Listening to a sermon a few days ago. He was talking about bad things that happen and how for those who trust in Jesus, they can have hope. He talked about a man in their church (a family fried on mine) who was diagnosed with Stage 4B Cancer last year, and how he’s turned that death sentence into life. So, maybe that’s the point of today -> that even in the face of hardship, we should look to the giver of life and focus on that.

Last week I brought up this idea of seeing ourselves as “saints” instead of “sinners.” It’s brought up a lot of discussion here at the Pizza Ranch Support Center, so I’d like to revisit this again. So often we talk of ourselves as “sinners saved by grace” and this is of course true, but sometimes that simply gives us the “okay” to sin. There is so much more to it: