“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Heavenly Father,
Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday. We will take off from work, eat food, watch football, plan to shop, laugh, maybe take a nap or read and call it a day. But that is not thanksgiving at all. Oh we say ‘God bless this and God bless that and thank you for our food’ but that is so far removed from what true thanksgiving is about. You told us to enter into your gates with thanksgiving and that means all the time, not just once a year. We are to come into your presence with thanks on our lips. Dear Father, we behave like spoiled children so much of the time. We overlook many daily blessings and we overlook the tremendous cost that was paid so that we can have eternal life. You have told us to rejoice that our names are written in heaven and yet so many times we are consumed with our circumstances that we loose focus and ‘thanks’ is the farthest thing from our lips. Forgive us – forgive me. Your Word reminds me to give thanks in everything. That ‘everything’ means everything. I imagine that the sweetest prayers that ever reach your throne are the ones for thanks in the hardest of circumstances. To say ‘thank you’ as I kneel before a tiny infant casket. To say ‘thank you’ when my husband looses a job. To say ‘thank you’ when my world comes tumbling down through a renegade child. It is in these moments that I learn to identify with you Lord Jesus. I don’t feel thankful in those moments but out of faith and obedience I bow the knee and lift my heart and hands before you in pure thanks. Then the peace that this world cannot give, or bottle, or sell floods my soul. Jesus peace. So much I don’t know, but this I do know – that you O God are sovereign and I am yours. That is how I am able to offer thanks all the time, everyday.o offer – the Lord Jesus Christ. Your blood bought my freedom from sin and from hell. There is no greater victory! Amen and amen!
Thankfully yours,
Penny
