Give thanks....

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."  1 Chronicles 16:34

I wonder how many times during our days, we take a moment and truly give thanks, especially to our Lord.  We want things from Him.  We expect things from Him. After all,  Our Lord does promise us that He will provide for us, sustain us, give us the desires of our heart. This is because He loves us as His adored children.  And just as we adore our own children and seek to care for them, our Father in Heaven loves us with an exceedingly abundance of love and favor.  We are blessed. 

He tells us to thank Him.  Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."  And so we should.

Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

I wonder how many times we forego the peace of Christ in our hearts.  Even though He calls us to be in peace and to be thankful, we forego that peace and thankfulness because we seek our own way.  We want what we want when we want it, becoming discontent and losing any sort of peace in our heart and tossing any form of thankfulness far away from our selfish selves.  As our Lord watches us being discontent, foregoing His truth, peace and thanksgiving, His heart surely feels our despair.  He, however, allows us our actions knowing that one day, at the appointed time, we will discover our error and come running into His presence with thanksgiving and He has been waiting for our humble return.

Our Lord truly desires for us to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, since as members of one body we are called to peace. And to be thankful."

Colossians 4:2: "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."

I wonder how many times we don't devote ourselves to prayer because we are too busy, too tired, too stressed, too broken, or maybe our favorite show is on television.   And in lacking that devotion to prayer, we also lack watchfulness, and thankfulness is never even thought of.  Sometimes we "Just don't" because it takes concentrated effort to get into devotion and prayer mode when we believe we are "too" everything.  We put ourselves first, before our Lord.  But being devoted to prayer, being watchful and being thankful are worth the effort it takes.  Jesus is ready to receive your devotion and will bless your watchfulness and rejoice in your thankfulness.  His banner over us is love!

1 Corinthians 1:4: "I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus."

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This says so much.  Just always be thankful, thanking God for others because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus...and we will not lack...as God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with His son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.   Yes, my Lord, let us be thankful!

2 Corinthians 9:11: "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."

I wonder how often we we walk in selfish disregard of our Lord's wishes that we be generous on every occasion, and that the generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.   His generous, giving nature is to be a part of our nature as well, if only we chose to operate in His ways, with His heart and His love.  His promise is that we will be enriched in every way and generous on every occasion and that generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  Be generous and give and the result is thanksgiving.  This is awesome! 

1 Timothy 4:4-5: "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer."

Be thankful and know that everything God created is good and to be received with thanksgiving.  Please don't reject the good that He has for you. It is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.  It is good to be thankful and receive that which is good  His love for us is a grand gesture!

Philippians 4:6-7: "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."

I wonder how often we get caught in feelings of anxiousness and anxiety.  Sometimes, it is so bad that we cannot function.  We cannot think and we react poorly to situations and feel lost and hopeless. 

God is telling us to come to Him with thanksgiving, presenting to Himself our innermost thoughts and desires.  He promises His peace which transcends all understanding which will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  We have no need to be anxious about anything!

Psalm 28:7: "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."

How often do we forget that our strength is in our Lord.  He is our strength and our shield.  We can trust Him with every heartfelt emotion and issue.  As we receive His help, our heart is exulted and we sing praises of thanks to our Lord.  We can sing praises to His name continually for His love for us is personal, intimate and exceedingly beautiful.  We are made strong because He is strong!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Sometimes,  painful circumstances  seem to draw people away from our Lord.  However,  as life sometimes gets too hard, this one truth remains.  Our Lord desires for us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.  

I know that sounds like too much sometimes, but always know that as Jesus was placed on the cross at Calvary and died a cruel and painful death, it was for you and me. Our Lord, Jesus was born, lived, died and rose again, so that we may live.  The pain that Jesus bore on the cross that day was for all the pain that we will ever feel.  Jesus came because it is God's will that we live, giving thanks to Him in all things.  Let us rejoice and pray without ceasing!  

My prayer for today is that we never stop praising our Lord. We can and must get into our Father's will and desires for us in order to be thankful and in order to receive all of the gifts that He has for us.   The Lord is good. He is our strength, our salvation, our peace.  In Him we find love.  In Him we find thanksgiving.  Thank you my Lord for loving us in such a wonderful, unceasing and devoted way.  Thank you that you take us from glory to glory. Thank you for giving us family and friends.  Thank you for putting a song in our hearts and praise on our lips!  And an unconditional and beautiful love that we can share.  May we all put thanksgiving on our lips and a song in our heart. 

Love and blessings to all in Jesus name. 

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."  1 Chronicles 16:34