On this Thankful Thursday, what are you thankful for?
Peace and rest to you my sweet friends.
The older I get the more I realize this world is not my home. The restlessness within me is not for more "stuff" but more of Him. The prayer in this graphic has gripped my soul often over the past few years. I often stop and pray it phrase by phrase. May He speak to you through this prayer of thanks as well.
On this Thankful Thursday, what are you thankful for? Peace and rest to you my sweet friends.
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Each day the Lord blesses His children in unique ways. But do we always see the blessing when they come disguised as trials? Counting our blessings is more than positive thinking. It’s recognizing God pouring out His grace every moment, regardless of how it looks or feels.
We all entered this world as sinners, recipients of the curse. But when the fullness of His grace came in the form of Jesus Christ – God incarnate – we are now recipients of all the blessings that are ours in Christ. Sometimes the fullness of grace pours out tangible blessings that bring great joy and satisfaction. God is the Giver of every good and perfect gift. (James 1:17) It’s easy to give thanks for those blessings. So what about when we don’t see the tangible blessings? Has God removed His hand of blessing upon us? James 1:17 goes on to say there’s no variation or shadow of turning. He is our unchanging God. The fullness of grace continues to flow over the Child of God. Trials come…we lose a loved one, our job, our health, a failed marriage, and suddenly we think we’re being cursed rather than blessed. That’s when we need to dip – no IMMERSE ourselves – into the reservoir of His Word we have stored in the recesses of our memory. “”This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him. The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. “
Fall of 2014 my husband and I went through a crisis when he lost his job unexpectedly. During the initial shock, those first 24 hours, verses we’d memorized over the years flooded our souls and brought a tremendous sense of peace. Over the weeks that followed, through the fullness of His grace, we experienced blessings we wouldn’t trade for anything. We experienced the blessing of the nearness of God Himself (Psalm 73:28). When we doubted which way to go, the Spirit of God reminded us of Psalm 16:11 – “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
We decided we each would daily write out a blessing and put it into our blessing jar. The day after he lost his job he wrote, “The sun came up this morning. God is sovereign.” Our unchanging God is still filling us to overflowing with blessings….no shadow of turning. Just because it wasn’t something we could hold in our hands, it was still something we could count as a blessing. His blessings flow from the fullness of His grace in ways that bless us every moment of every day. We need only to look around us. Lord, Dare I reject a blessing from you just because it isn’t in the shape, size, or color I want, or fit into my perfect little world box? I would be a most miserable soul indeed if I did not receive all You have for me with thanks, for this is Your will concerning me. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) I humbly thank You for the blessings You are pouring upon me from the fullness of Your grace. Your humbly grateful daughter,
There I stood at the Turkey Creek Overlook on the Cherohala Skyway, awestruck by God's magnificent message painted across the sky in shades of orange, red, and yellow. The setting sun was tucking in the hills and valley below for the night with a variegated blanket of velvet. How could anyone doubt the existence of God? I began to ponder words my husband, Mike, read at church Sunday from Romans 1. When I got back to our home I decided to look the passage up in multiple translations and The Message said it so well in modern language:
Romans 1:20-23The Message (MSG)
Lord, may I seek only You, the One True and Living God.
Every day remember to look around you. There’s so much to be thankful for. His creation speaks, reminding us to give Him the glory and to thank Him daily. God's grace is found in every moment of life. His gifts to us are rooted in the simple things and heaven's glory is displayed in the ordinary. Spending life spinning our wheels chasing after more rather than chasing after God leads to a downward spiral life.
It's a lack of doxology that leads to depravity. He's given us everything we need to point us to Himself, but when we fail to give Him glory and thanks for all things, we are heading down a slippery slope. Wickedness isn't rooted primarily in some ghetto, or some shady backstreet. It all begins with an act of forgetting to give Him glory and to give thanks to God. (Romans 1:18-21,28) Remember your roots, as one who has received Christ Jesus. Being rooted and built up in Him, strengthens your faith, and causes your life to overflow with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6,7) Are you modeling thankfulness? Is it a part of your legacy, how you will be remembered? Make giving thanks part of your every day life. Live a life of thanks living. |
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