Thanksgiving

The grocery stores are bustling, and the cooking has begun for many who celebrate Thanksgiving day with friends and family. One day, set aside out of 365 to give thanks.  But what about the rest of the days, just because they are not designated as a day to give thanks is far from the truth that we are to praise God continually, moment by moment and day by day.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

How many times do we disregard the blessings that are before us and the many things that God has done for us and through us? We lose focus of what really matters and let the unessentials override our essentials. Unessentials being those very things we stress about and are anxious about and have allowed fear to overtake, vs the essentials of believing in those founded truths and promises that God has made known and having the faith and confidence to be joyful even in the midst of turmoiled circumstances. 

Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

Giving thanks is not a matter of adhering to a stated holiday, but rather a state of appreciation for each day and the bounty of God's goodness that has been poured into us through His Holy Spirit.  

This is the day that the Lord has made, it is not a calendar day specified for thanksgiving, it is a regular day without a flagged notation.  But our regular days are the days when God is moving, and shaking up our worlds for His purposes. I don't thank God enough for the everyday blessings of food and shelter and provisions that do not scream for acclamation.  Nor is my joy an overflowing one of contentment.  I seem to find the faults and inconsistencies and raise my complaints instead of giving God the praise and glory he deserves on a consistent basis.

As I sit her writing today, my heart again is stirred by the manifested bounty that we as a nation have been blessed with, we as a people have been blessed with and how I as an individual have been blessed to KNOW Christ.  He brought me to himself just as he has personally brought you to himself as well.  We have been given the privilege and are blessed beyond words to be a chosen part of God's family.  We have been introduced to his Son and have followed His story of sacrifice forgiveness and grace and have believed.  We have been  adopted into his kingdom and if we start by standing on that truth alone, the 

blessings to follow are incomprehensible.

Today, this ordinary day, I bow down and give God thanks.  No requests, no complaining, no discontent for situations before me, no question as to why things are as they are, so I share with you my prayer of Thanksgiving for this day... for today is the day that God has made.  He will be with me through out it, his grace is sufficient for all the may happen and the circumstances that have been rolled out before me.  For if God is with me who can be against me. Romans 8:31 If God is for me who can be against me? Psalm 18:32 It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

This is a prayer I wrote last year and it remains my prayer for this day: Lord, I thank you for my blessings each precious day, I thank you for listening whenever I pray. I thank you for answering my prayers every one, I thank you for introducing me to your Holy Son. I thank you for caring over my least little chore, I thank you for giving me such causes to adore. I thank you for showing me the ways of your heart, I thank you for loving me right from the start. I thank you for altering my point of view, I thank you for helping me to focus on you. I thank you for your clear voice of truth indeed, I thank you for keeping me daily in need. I thank you for friends who show support and concern, I thank you for the ways you help me discern. I thank you for rainbows after turbulent storms, I thank you for sunshine ... reflective and warm. I thank you for your void that you fill in my heart, I thank you for your promise to never depart. I thank you for the gifts that you so gently make appear, I thank you for helping me use them in matters you hold dear. I thank you God for surprises that make my life so grand, I thank you God for interruptions that where you have shown your loving hand. I thank you God for my grandchildren who bring such grand delight, I thank you for their innocence and their smiles so loving and bright.  I thank you too for changes that cause us to release our hold on earthly stuff, I thank you for the fact that your ways of strength and grace are always enough. I thank you for relationships that you are teaching me to build, I thank you for the many times your have guided my spirit to yield. I thank you God for mind sets that you send to light my path, I thank you God for forgiving my sins and withholding your mighty wrath. I thank you God for your presence in the midst of a crowed view, You have blessed my life with purpose...may I always honor and glorify you.   And finally Lord I thank you for your love that never ends, For your have given me an example to live by....and a light to follow around the bend.  Amen

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.    Worship the Lord with gladness come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name.For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all. May God continue to bless you with a knowledge of who he is, what he has done and what he is to do, and may we be grateful for each day we have been given to breathe life on this earth, and hold fast to the hope of what is yet to come in eternal life.

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!