“By Him therefore let us offer
the sacrifice of praise
to God continually, that is,
the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name.
Hebrews 13:15
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tag: Thankful
Sunday Praise and a Prayer of Thanksgiving
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for your sovereignty and your holiness. We praise you because you are worthy of all praise.
Father, we always give you thanks, but during this week when we’ll stop for a day to observe all we have to be thankful for, before the turkey and the stuffing and the pie, we want to honor and bless you by thanking you for all you are and all you’ve done for us.
For many it may be difficult to see what there is to be thankful for. Father, give us hearts that are softened toward you and willing to be thankful, even as a sacrifice to you. We pray that throughout the week you would put on our hearts all we have to be grateful for, for every good gift that’s come from you.
Thank you for Jesus and for His sacrifice on the cross that paid for our sins, that He took the punishment that should have been ours. We are deeply and eternally thankful, Lord.
Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit who indwells us and leads us, teaches us, comforts us, strengthens us and fills us with your peace that passes all understanding.
Thank you for calling us your children and providing us with everything we need. Thank you for being with us at all times, never leaving or forsaking us, but constantly shining your light and joy into our lives, especially when it seems as though the world around us is falling apart.
Thank you for your faithfulness to keep every one of your promises, like preparing a home for us with you.
Thank you for the people you’ve placed in our lives, for their love, the spiritual fellowship we share, and the friendship we enjoy.
Thank you for every big thing and every small thing we can sometimes overlook in the busyness of our lives.
Thank you for the sun and moon, clouds and rain, breezes and fresh air, flowers and trees, lakes and oceans, sunrises and sunsets, and even for the pets that make us smile.
Thank you for blessing us so abundantly.
And Lord, thank you for prayer. Thank you for allowing us, through Jesus, to come before you with every need, every desire, every fear, every hope, and for hearing us when we do, and for answering us according to your perfect will.
Thank you, Father. Help us to be a people who are always mindful of your blessings and overflowing with thanksgiving.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Thankful Thursday – Good Medicine
“A merry heart does good like a medicine…”
Proverbs 17:22
Today, and every day, but especially in the middle of this mess, I’m so thankful God’s given us a sense of humor to lighten our hearts, change our countenance, bring us together, and remind us there is still joy.
What God revealed to Solomon when he wrote the proverb, modern medical science now understands.
Laughter causes us to take in more oxygen, stimulates our organs, improves the function of blood vessels, and increases the endorphins released by our brain. It stimulates circulation and relaxes the muscles.
It can help fight stress, relieve tension and pain, and lift depression.
And yeah, it can burn calories. It might not be a lot, but I’ll take it.
Thankful Thursday – Mercy
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
1 Chronicles 16:34
There is so much going on in the world right now that our minds can get pulled into a million different pits, so I thought it was important to start Thankful Thursday again.
I don’t have to tell you how despairing and overwhelming the state of this world is in right now.
But God’s mercy endures, now and forever, and when we remember that, and give Him thanks, we will have hope.
The words of David recorded in 1 Chronicles were part of a psalm spoken when the ark of the covenant was returned after battle to its rightful place in the tabernacle. God’s glory had been restored among His people.
Today we’re facing another kind of spiritual battle, and the enemy is doing all he can to hijack the glory of God from this world.
But God’s glory now lives inside His people. We are His tabernacle.
And we know that “All the promises of God in {Christ} are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20
In Him we have His immeasurable love and grace and mercy and forgiveness.
In Him we know He will lead us, give us wisdom, and provide for us.
In Him we know our eternity is with Him.
This life is short, and one day, when this battle is over, all wickedness will disappear, and His glory will reign forever more, where we will live in eternal peace and safety and love.
So, wherever your thoughts have roamed to today, let’s focus them back on our merciful Heavenly Father, who already has the victory (and so do we!), and give Him thanks.
What are you thankful for today?
I Would Rather
I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house
of my God
than dwell in the
tents of the wicked.
Psalm 84:10
Thankful Thursday – Pie
Isolation can give us a lot of time to think, and sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than being inside our own heads.
We can start looking around, comparing our situation, our lives, to others and feel like we’re coming up short. Our piece of the pie seems like a sliver, and other’s a whopping piece with ice cream, or whipped cream, or both, slathered all over it.
And the truth is, we all have things in our lives we wish were different.
There is much that others enjoy as a given part of life that I will never know.
At the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph ponders the prosperity of those who are wicked. Though they live foolishly, they enjoy good health, they have no troubles, they aren’t plagued by common human burdens (he thinks).
And here he was, he thought, keeping his heart pure and his hands innocent, and yet every day brings a fresh round of pain and affliction.
Until, he says, he entered the sanctuary of God.
We he got his focus off himself and onto God, then he understood the final destiny of the wicked. Ultimately, all they had gained will come to absolutely nothing when they face God at the final judgment.
And finally Asaph writes, “My flesh and my heart may fail…”
There is much discussion about what Asaph meant by this. Did he mean his flesh and heart failed him when he fell into bitterness and envy of others? Or did he mean that eventually his flesh and heart will fail when he dies and moves on from this life? Maybe both.
“… but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26
Asaph is finally able to take a wide and godly perspective and realize that because he has God in his life, he doesn’t have just a sliver of pie, or even a big piece. He actually has the whole pie.
Yes, his own heart may fail, but God is His strength, and His portion, his inheritance, in this life and in the next.
Forever.
Yes, I may have missed out on a lot in this life, and maybe that’s a good thing because it showed me how much I needed God.
But God (Elohiym – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is my portion. And when everything in this life is gone, I will still have my Portion. I will have my relationship with God through Christ, and the faith and character and everything else He’s built on that Foundation through the many years I’ve walked with Him.
And it will last forever.
So the reality is, I haven’t missed out on one bit. I have God and all He is! And if you know Jesus, so do you. We have the Creator of the universe, our heavenly Father, the keeper of our souls and the One is able to make all grace abound toward us and bless us abundantly, our Lord and Savior and Friend and Brother and Co-Heir in the faith, Jesus, and our Comforter and Peace Giver, the One who seals us for eternal life, the Holy Spirit.
We can never come to the end of the list of His blessings. And anything we missed in this life that He deems important He will more than make up for in the next.
So instead of focusing inward or outward, let’s look up. We have more pie than we could ever eat.
Easter Sunday Praise and a Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you! We praise you for your amazing grace and mercy, for your steadfast faithfulness and goodness, . We are eternally grateful for the gift of salvation you’ve given us through your Son. Thank you for allowing Him to be sacrificed so He could shed His precious blood and die for my sins. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being obedient to death, even death on a cross. Thank you for enduring the punishment and suffering that should be ours, and then overcoming death, and applying your victory to us. We can never thank you enough. You rescued us from the pit, freed us from sin, gave us life, and changed our lives forever. Our hearts are yours. May our lives always glorify you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
From Gray to Living Color
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
There are times when we are inundated, either with our own personal experiences or through the outside world, with so much that’s going wrong.
And when we enter into prayer it’s easy to jump right into those prayer requests, like we’re giving God our grocery list.
But prayer is so much more.
It’s sitting with and communing with our Heavenly Father.
Paul reminds us to pray with thanksgiving. In the Greek that word for thanksgiving means gratitude, or a grateful language, to God, as an act of worship.
Yes, we thank God for the things He’s done, but even more than that, we need to come to Him with an attitude of Thanksgiving. Of worship.
And that takes me back to the beginning. How do we pray with thanksgiving when everything around us feels like it’s crumbling? When all the world seems gray with empty shelves and unpaid bills and isolation and sickness and death?
How can we see the good?
We ask Jesus for His eyes. He sees the good, and when we see through His eyes we will see the good all around us – the things He’s done for us, the blessings we still have in the middle of it all, the beauty and kindness around us, like the kindness of a boy taking the time to stoop down for a minute to rid a yard of an ugly weed.
And when He fills our hearts with His goodness, we can sit in communion, with hearts of thanksgiving, in worship.
With Jesus’ eyes, the world will go from gray to living color and we will be overcome with thanksgiving, just like this man who is suddenly able to see the beauty all around him that was there all along.
Oh Lord, help us to see with your eyes…
The Spirit of Thanksgiving Past, Present, and Future
If H.G. Wells had been able to build a time machine, I wonder how many people would jump in the morning after Halloween, push the lever forward a couple of months and stop on December 25. Eh, maybe the 24th. Jump from party to party, candy to presents, and skip Thanksgiving altogether.
I’ve never quite understood why some people seem content to forgo Thanksgiving. Maybe because it’s not a commercial holiday it’s not as popular.
Maybe giving thanks doesn’t come as easy to us as getting gifts. Maybe people don’t understand how vital it is to our spiritual, mental, emotional, and even physical health to have a thankful heart. Maybe people don’t think they have much to be thankful for. And maybe that answers a lot of questions about the state of our States.
Let’s jump in H.G. Wells’ time machine, pull the lever, and travel back to October, 1863, when Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
***
We’re in the middle of the Civil War.
It might seem a peculiar time to think about declaring a national holiday of giving thanks, but maybe it was the best time. A God-appointed time.
When we’re facing trials and hardships and pain and suffering is when we most need to stop… and remember all we have to be thankful for, and most importantly, Who we have to be thankful for.
So on October 3, 1863, roughly six months after he signed a Proclamation of a Day of Fasting, and a year and a half before the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed his Proclamation of Thanksgiving.
Of course, that’s only the beginning of Thanksgiving as our national holiday, but not the beginning of giving thanks. Other historical moments might also seem to have peculiar timing.
Let’s travel back a bit further…
***
After seeking the Lord and fasting, King Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, appointed men to sing these words to the Lord as they went into battle against their enemies:
“give thanks to the LORD,
for His love endures forever.”
2 Chronicles 20:21b
“As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.” (2 Chronicles 20:22)
***
While fleeing from his enemies, David gives thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness. (Psalm 7:17)
***
In the darkened night as He faced being arrested, tortured, and handed over to be crucified, Jesus gives thanks.
***
And while in the chains of a dark prison, Paul exhorts all of us to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philip 4:6-7)
***
If praising God and giving thanks had the effect it did in the lives of all these who saw the Lord triumph in impossible situations, what could a heart of thanksgiving to the Lord do in our own lives?
While most of us aren’t facing a war, or prison, or death, we may be facing other, more personal trials. Could giving thanks not keep our eyes focused on our Father of the heavenly lights, from whom every good and perfect gift flows? And could giving thanks not be a gateway that would open our hearts to God’s joy and love and triumph in impossible situations?
I think so.
Another bit of peculiar timing I love is that Thanksgiving is just weeks before Christmas. Observing a time of giving thanks to God for all we’ve been blessed with might just keep us from allowing greed and materialism and self-importance to swallow up a pure and grateful heart as we (and our children) head into Christmastime, or any time.
Now, let’s time travel into the future just a bit…
***
We’re in heaven, living a life more full of love and joy than we ever could have imagined. God has wiped every tear from our eyes, and there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
We’ve received the eternal inheritance we’d been promised could “never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:4-6)
Truly, we have more to be thankful for, more treasures in this life and in heaven – more than we can see with our eyes, and infinitely more than could ever be contained in this life – than we have time to voice them.
Go ahead, I dare you to try…
Heavenly Father, we are filled with thanksgiving for all you’ve blessed us with, and all the blessings you have yet to show us. Thank you for your immeasurably gracious love, for our salvation from certain death, for your continual presence, your faithfulness, and for our eternal home in heaven with You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Not a 9-5 Job
Pastors only work a couple of hours on Sundays, right? Maybe a couple more if there’s a midweek study? Well, not quite.
Not even close.
Besides spending time in prayer, studying God’s Word and preparing the teachings, pastors oversee all the church staff, each ministry, all the events, manage the church building maintenance, allocate church finances, counsel hurting people, resolve disputes (at least try!), perform weddings and funerals, and I’m sure a lot of other things that we don’t even know about.
And they do it all while also managing their own household, marriage, children, all with the same challenges we all have.
And it’s not only what they do, but how God calls them to do it – with all love, grace, mercy, humility, wisdom, patience, and stewardship.
In his first letter to Timothy (third chapter), Paul says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”
And speaking of the devil, make no mistake, pastoring a flock is a front lines position. Pastors, and their families, are particularly open to spiritual attacks.
This is not a job, but a calling they pour their hearts into, day in and day out, 24/7, and pastor burnout is not uncommon.
That’s where we come in. 
“Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to appreciate those who diligently work among you [recognize, acknowledge, and respect your leaders], who are in charge over you in the Lord and who give you instruction, and [we ask that you appreciate them and] hold them in the highest esteem in love because of their work [on your behalf].”
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 AMP
Every Sunday we walk in and sit down, taking for granted that someone has laid down his life in service to the Lord and to us, to feed us, to train us, to care for us as the Lord would have him do. Showing our appreciation is the very least we can do to serve them back, to encourage them, to let them know their service is not in vain, but is making a difference in our lives.
Of course that can be done any time of the year, but to come together in October to corporately show our appreciation during Pastor Appreciation Month is a way we can stand together with our pastors, and their families, as one in the Lord.
Thank you, pastors!
Heavenly Father, we lift up our pastors to you and ask that you would fill them up with your Spirit, and renew their hearts with the love, wisdom, and encouragement they need to continue faithfully in the service you’ve called them to. We pray you would strengthen their marriages and protect their families from the enemy. Help us to never take for granted all they do, and remind us to pray for them, this month and always. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.