Giving Thanks On Thanksgiving

Living a Life of Thanksgiving

"Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way." Colossians 3:16-17

Jesus didn't suffer and die in our place for us to live a life of stress, worry, isolation, indecision, or desperation. When He saved us we got a brand new start in life, His Word, plus an advocate by our side.

We shouldn't have to go through life living without a purpose. We have one -- simply to live a life of thanksgiving and to give thanks to God with a grateful heart every single moment.

We do not need to spend our time worrying about tomorrow or judging people, figuring out where they are in life, how they got there or why. Jesus cleaned up our own mess, with no questions asked. Our response to that is simply to give Him thanks in all we do and in doing so help lift up the fallen to their feet, help mend and restore the broken and to help soothe and heal the wounds of the hurting, just like Jesus did to us.

Happy Thanksgiving Day, make it thanksgiving day everyday.

Blessed to Bless

Thanksgiving Wednesday

"God will make you rich enough so that you can always be generous. Your generosity will produce thanksgiving to God because of us. What you do to serve others not only provides for the needs of God’s people, but also produces more and more prayers of thanksgiving to God." (Paul writing to the Corinthian Church at 2 Corinthians 9:11-12)

God's plan for us is a cycle of thanksgiving to Him, our Heavenly Father first through the love of Jesus then on the same love which lives in the people who led us to Christ, those who pray for us, those who help us in our times of need and those who disciple us as the Holy Spirit leads them.

As our good, good Father continues to bless and nurture us through our growing life of thanksgiving, we are then able to stand on our own, and eventually be a teacher, mentor, encourager and leader ourselves. And the cycle of thanksgiving continues, ever since love first came down and showed us how to love others even when they are most unlovable.

Thankful Prayer

Thanksgiving Tuesday

"Everything God created is good. Nothing should be rejected if it is received with prayers of thanks. God’s word and prayer set it apart as holy." 1 Timothy 4:4-5

This is the very reason that we pray for every little thing we have and do.

Think about it, we pray for our food everytime we partake of them. Not only because it is practical to do so, as we do not know where it came from or where it has been, if it was genetically modified, if it was offered to whatever god, or if anybody sloppy prepared it.

But more importantly because we give a prayer of thanks to our Lord for the blessings He has given us which we are about to enjoy, and yes even if we really do not care for what is in front us. Hard to imagine, but we could have been born in a third-world or a war-torn country and we could be eating scraps. And just for that, we should be grateful.

And it is good that we start teaching this at an early age, so it becomes a habit early enough for the next generation as this will surely save them from a lot of grief during the times when they themselves may not have enough to eat or if they need to eat broccoli, spinach, beans, sprouts, okra, beets, liver, a foul smelling fish or anything they particularly aren't fond of.

The Lord is teaching us to be thankful at all times, in times of abundance and in times of lack. Our circumstances do not define us, our God does. He is our Abba Father, He is in control, He loves us and He cares for us, and He will never leave or forsake us. All we need to do is to listen, obey and trust Him.

So thank you Lord for doing the heavy lifting, all that is left for us to pick up the little pieces you left for us to do. And I think we could manage that. You know we can.

Talking Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Monday

"Neither abusive language, neither worthless words, nor of disgrace,
nor of nonsense -- these things that are unnecessary, but in place
of these, thanksgiving." Ephesians 5:4

The Message puts it this way "Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind
of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect."

The LORD is living in us -- He is our compass, our GPS and very
often He corrects us when we get lost or when we go astray.

And we do go wander into the stray paths and sometimes into dark
alleys.

And what does He tell us so as not to get lost? Give thanks.

I know, more and more it is increasingly difficult to be thankful.

But if we are looking for that one week when we could be in
thanksgiving mode, this week would be perfect, and it the right time
to reflect on what we really should be thankful for.

As I said, for many of us, that may be hard to do, as there are
really hardly anything to be thankful for. But if we keep still and
really listen to our inner compass, our inner GPS, He will reveal to
us many, many things to be thankful for.

When we woke up this morning, we had a bed, we have a roof, we have something to do, we have friends, we have family, we can breathe, we can smell, we can touch, we can see, hear and taste, we are alive...There is someone who loves me, and He loves me enough to die in my place. Thank you Lord.

Indeed it is, Jesus paid for our freedom, and we are indeed free to
do as we please, but engaging in things that do not necessarily
glorify the LORD is not really our style anymore... giving thanks is
who we are now. Let's start looking at things in another perspective
and trust Him who brought us out of darkness to share in His glory
and light. Happy Thanksgiving Monday.