Our God always looks into His beloved children and wants them to prosper spiritually, materially, and physically and have life to the full. I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “A Proud Christian Life.” We must all become children who God is proud of. To do so, we must live a life that rejoices always, pray incessantly, and give thanks in all circumstances, so our God will be pleased with us. First of all, joy is our top priority; we should be always joyful during our whole life on earth. God wants His children to live in joy and pleasure. We should not step back at any time, but live with faith, hope, and love and rejoice like in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. Deuteronomy 33:29 says, “Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places.” God directly said to the Israelites, “Blessed are you, O Israel!” I want God to call you, “Blessed are you!” Those who believe in Jesus and are saved are really blessed and happy. Parents, above all, want their children to be happy and blessed. So they don’t mind working day and night to provide everything their children need for their happiness. God also wants us to live a blessed life. It is because we have become God’s children. Psalm 20:4 says, “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” God wants to give us the desire of our hearts and wants us to dream and make us live a blessed life. Psalm 16:8-11 says, “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Even though God is invisible, we can specifically visualize Him saying to ourselves, “God is in front of me, at my left hand, and at my right hand. He is with me.” Our hearts and minds are a wonderful drawing board. You can draw a picture of your thoughts. When you come before God, you can imagine that God is in front of you, at your right hand, and at your left hand. And also you can draw a picture of God who says, “Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and hold you.” If we serve this God, He will be with us. When we pray, we must picture that God is not far away from us and that He is with us. As Jesus finished everything on the cross and gives us the Fivefold Gospel and the Threefold Blessing, we can be joyful in any circumstances. When we come before the cross and look to Jesus, our eternal God has already taken the whole responsibility of our sins for our mortal life and gives us His righteousness instead and settles our filthy sins and gives us His holiness. By His stripes He gives us health and He settled thorns and thistles on the cross and became poor to make us become rich through His poverty. By His death and resurrection He has become our resurrection and life to give us joy in our life, without lack. Whenever we pray to God briefly or for a longtime, He will answer us. We must pray the prayer of repentance like the prodigal son’s confession. Luke 15:21 says, "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'” The younger son asked his father to divide his property and to give him his share of the estate and he got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living, He was in desperate need. The Lord said that this prodigal son went back to his father, asking, “Make me like one of your hired men.” We are impressed that his father forgave his prodigal son as he returned to him. However, his elder brother didn’t forgive him at all. But his father forgave even his rebellious son when he repented of his sins and came back to him. David also prayed, “Forgive me my sins.” Even though David was one of the greatest kings of Israel, he also had to fight against sins. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Those who are sinful, unrighteous, and filthy but boast about their sins can’t be forgiven. But when those who are sinful, unrighteous, filthy and deserve abandonment plead with the Lord to help, He will gladly accept them. The Lord shows it through this restoration of the prodigal son in the Bible. The most important prayer for us is the Lord’s Prayer; it shows how much God loves us. Matthew 6:9-11 says, "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’” We must worship God’s name with awe. “your kingdom come,” God’s kingdom should reign over this earth. “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” His will be done in heaven means that we must always look up to heaven to receive heavenly dreams in our hearts like for example Abraham’s offspring shall be like the stars in heaven. God always fulfills heavenly dreams through us on earth. God’s dream done in heaven will be done on earth. “Give us today our daily bread.” When you face hardships in life, do not rely on those who cannot save. In the Lord’s Prayer, He said, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We should ask God to enable us not to fall into temptation and to suffer from painful things, and to help us not to do evil. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” When we always memorize this Lord’s Prayer, we can pray before God simply and effectively. Psalm 146:3-5 says, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” If we look to those who can’t save, we will be disappointed and hurt, but when we rely on our Almighty God, we will experience a mighty miracle. Therefore, David said in Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” We must recognize that our God is a good God who gives us good things all the time. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray continually.” However, some people think it burdensome to keep this Word. When we think back on this Word, we must understand that if we keep praying, God will answer us without ceasing. What a wonderful blessing it is! While we toss and turn in our bed and dream a dream but suddenly we pray, “Oh, Lord, help me. Please help me!” Nevertheless, God usually helps us even through that prayer. Psalm 121:4 says, “Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” God is described as the One who neither slumbers nor sleeps to watch over His people. As God is so good, we can always come before Him to ask for His help. Psalm 107:9 says, “for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” When we pray to God, He will fill us with every good thing. We should also seek peace of mind from God. Psalm 69:14-15 says, “Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.” This is the prayer of peace. Anyone who wants to have peace of mind must read Psalm 69 carefully. The prayer of healing is in James 5:15 which says, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” By His stripes we are healed! I have seen, many times, God healing terminal cancer patients amazingly. As a pastor I have laid my hands on sick people. Some of them have incurable cancer in their body. However, they believe that God is a good God and give thanks to Him and expect something good to happen to them. “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” When they become cheerful in their hearts and give thanks to God, He heals all of them! God helps all of them! Psalm 16:1-2 says, “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." The Lord also helps the poor and needy people. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” When we look up to the Lord whose body hurt with thorns and thistles on the cross of Calvary, His price of pain makes us rich! Some think it a wrong faith, but Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross to make us receive its blessed result. When we are blessed by God, we can help our neighbors in turn. With nothing we can’t help anybody. The congregation in Yoido Full Gospel Church, always think of Jesus who settled our curses and we dream of Jesus who blesses us and we believe in Him and boast about Him with our mouths. God will lead you. Next, give thanks in all circumstances. Giving thanks to God changes our bitter water of life like that of Marah into sweet water. When Moses led the Israelites by God’s command in the desert, they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. They finally came to Marah, but they could not drink its water because it was bitter. When Moses prayed to God, the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. Today we live a hard life like in the desert of Shur. Whatever we try, it always turns into bitter water. To sweeten our bitter life, we need the cross of Calvary of Jesus Christ. “God I hold the cross of Jesus tightly. Please sweeten my bitter life by the redeeming grace of Jesus on the cross.” The Lord will say, “Throw the cross into your bitter life.” When we throw the cross of Jesus through prayer, our bitter life will be sweetened. God commands us not to forget the miracle of sweetening a spring by Moses. This world is a desert and it is almost impossible to drink sweet water in it. However, the cross of Jesus is a mighty instrument of God to sweeten our bitter water. Therefore, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”(Romans 8:1-2) Jesus gives us freedom and liberation. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 4:6-7) Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This word of the Lord is so wonderful and terrific! And then we must change our dreams and clothe in faith and declare creatively. Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Hebrews 10:38-39 says, “’But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” Romans 10:10 says, “ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” When we have faith and give thanks to God, we can receive wonderful grace of God. As God’s children, we must live a happy, victorious life by being joyful of heaven and drive out the devil. Then, God will be pleased. Do not give up even if there are numerous trials and hardships in life. If we are always joyful, pray, and give thanks by moving forward with dreams and hopes, God will work amazing things.