Tag: Thankful

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03
Dec '18

In Abundance or Affliction

Posted on Dec 3, 2018 in Devotions | Tags: ,

03
Dec '18
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21) 
 
Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts encourages readers to search their lives each day for what the Lord has done for them. In it, she daily notes God’s abundant generosity to her in gifts both large and small, ranging from the simple beauty of iridescent bubbles in the dish sink to the incomparable salvation of sinners like herself (and the rest of us!). Ann contends that gratitude is the key to seeing God in even the most troubling of life’s moments. 
 
Job is famous for a life of such “troubling” moments. Indeed, his losses were deep and many. Just moments after losing all his livestock, he learns of the simultaneous death of all his ten children. Job’s profound grief was evidenced in his response: he “rent his mantle, and shaved his head” (1:20). His words in that painful hour make me think Job knew the practice of gratitude, for he acknowledges that God had given him everything he’d lost (v. 21). How else could he worship in the midst of such incapacitating grief? 
 
The practice of daily gratitude can’t erase the magnitude of pain we feel in seasons of loss. Job questioned and grappled through his grief as the rest of the book describes. But recognizing God’s goodness to us—in even the smallest of ways—can prepare us to kneel in worship before our all-powerful God in the darkest hours of our earthly lives. 
 
O God, You are the Giver of all good things. Help me to recognize Your generosity in even the smallest ways and to trust You in seasons of loss and hardship. Amen. 
 
When I read this devotion it blessed me. We have all experienced loss and hardship but how do we handle it, with fear, anger and lasting sadness or do we do as today’s devotion says and recognize God’s goodness and practice gratitude and thankfulness, recognizing that through abundance or affliction, everything we may have lost came from Him? Why not start a gratitude list? Watch how the regular practice of thankfulness changes your daily life. 
 
Have a beautiful and uplifting day in The Lord! 
 
Today’s Reading is Nahum 1:7

23
Nov '16

Thankfulness

Posted on Nov 23, 2016 in Devotions | Tags: , ,

23
Nov '16

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

(Psalm 107:8-9)

Tomorrow, we will spend the day eating good things and hopefully, thanking the Lord for each morsel. As Christians, a day like Thanksgiving with its elaborate feasting is a merely a feeble preview of the feast that we will enjoy for eternity in Heaven. It’s a physical picture of the spiritual bounty that awaits us. At some point tomorrow, most of us will declare ourselves ‘stuffed!’ And while we Americans are familiar with physical fullness, there is always a hunger and thirst within us for spiritual fulfillment. We each have a deep desire for our hearts to feel fully valued, loved and loaded with holy purpose. That thirst will at long last be finally and forever satisfied in the person and presence of Jesus Christ.

For Christians, we have that purpose, value and love now, but struggle to fully feel and remember it while still living in this broken world. Our imperfect bodies, struggles with sin, and the suffering of this world drain our souls and send us into a battle to remember who we are and Whose we are. I was struggling to remember this the other day. I was driving along pondering the seemingly endless struggle over my physical insecurities and looked out my window at a gorgeous pink sunset the Lord had laid before me. His voice spoke to my heart and reminded me that I am more beautiful and more wonderfully made than that sunset. And for the moment, the eternal perspective won. But the battle began anew the next morning when I got up to get dressed. Our life here will be full of these small battles between acknowledging our brokenness and remembering our redemption. In heaven, the brokenness will be forever gone and all that will remain is to be filled to the brim with the glory of the Lord.

Don’t let your gratitude tomorrow be short-lived or superficial. Let it be a spiritual reset, putting your heart into a grateful posture so that your actions come out of thankfulness for what the Lord has done in you instead of focused on what remains to be sanctified. When we operate from a grateful heart, our perspective and battle posture will be much improved. If we thank the Lord for all the battles won in the past and for the war that He has already won, we are better prepared to fight discontentment and selfishness. Eat and fellowship tomorrow thanking the Lord for the good things He has laid before you now and the even better things that He has laid in store for you in eternity. He has indeed given us good things and He’s not through yet.

This brought tears to my eyes as I read it this morning. I felt I had to share every bit of it. My prayer today, going into tomorrow and every day after will be, don’t let my gratitude be short lived or superficial. Let it be a spiritual reset, putting my heart into a grateful posture so that my actions come out of thankfulness for what the Lord has done in me instead of focusing on what remains to be sanctified. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Amen. (Psalm 136:1)

Have a wonderful day in The Lord!

Today’s Reading is Psalm 107