Truly Thankful

Well, here we are.  Thanksgiving Day.  So much for my blog-a-day challenge this month.  But I do have plenty to be thankful for and today as we gather together with friends and family and enjoy the food that has been planned, prepped and prepared, my mind is filled with what to truly be thankful for this year.

I've spent the last few weeks reading over so many verses in the Bible about thanks, thanksgiving and being thankful.  The Bible has more than enough to say about being thankful, it's all over that Book, from beginning to end.  God knows man and knows that we have to constantly be reminded to be thankful.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." 

2 Timothy 3:1-2

Thankfulness breeds certain characteristics in a person, so does unthankfulness.  I want the results of a thankful person, a thankful Christian.

I could write a whole long list of all the "things" I am thankful for today.  For my salvation, my family, my great church, my great Pastor and his family, all the wonderful friends God has blessed me with, my health, my job and so on.  But instead of continuing that list, I am going to focus today's post on the source of all those things I am blessed with.

First and foremost, I am thankful for my God.

My God is alive!  He has overcome death and Hell and He is victorious!  He is the One, True God.  He is the One who existed before all else existed.  By Him were all things created and created for His pleasure.

Millions of people have faith and millions and billions of people believe but unfortunately, many put their faith and belief in a man who is in the grave or many put their faith in a church or religion.  But my God and Savior, Jesus Christ, He is real!  He is alive and here are just a few of His attributes that I am most thankful for...

 - I am thankful for God's love.

"But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

There are days when I struggle to understand why God would love me.  I mean, "what is man, that thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4).  Why would a just and holy God who is in need of nothing, why would He love me?  I don't always understand it but boy, am I thankful for it! 

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He first loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  1 John 4:10

He doesn't love me because of what I do for Him or because I love Him.  He loved me first.  He loved me while I was yet a filthy sinner who rejected Him.  He loved me when I rejected His love.  But His love, man, it was there from the beginning and it doesn't have an end.  It doesn't have an end!  I'll never run out of His love for me!  It has no limits!  There is no love that is greater than his love!

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13

- I am thankful for God's forgiveness.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  1 John 1:9

His cleansing is unlike anything else.  I know my sins, I know my thoughts, my actions, my motives and my intentions and I understand how unholy they are but yet, for some reason, he not only forgives but cleanses me.  He forgives and cleanses of not just some but all!  ALL!  

- I am thankful that God listens.

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:" 1 John 5:14

There are so many people who plan their day around a "call to prayer" that occurs five times a day.  But they pray to a god that is dead, who is lying in a grave and who cannot do anything about their prayers or even hear them.  But me, I can pray to a God who is alive!  A God who can do something about my prayers and who actually hears me!  

I am so thankful that I can go to Him and just talk.  I can pour my heart out before Him and even though I cannot see Him (yet!)  I know He is there and more than that, I know He hears me.  I know because His word tells me.  

I listen to people talk all day.  I have learned that many times, people just want someone who will listen, someone who will take an interest in them and what they have to say.  I know I want that, I desire that and that is why I am so inexpressibly thankful that I can take my cares, my dreams, my desires, my pains and heartaches, my decisions, anything...I can take it all to Him and He'll listen.  Wow.  That amazes me.

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7

- I am thankful for God's presence.

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."  Joshua 1:9

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday school, I taught on the fiery furnace (honestly, one of my favorites).  I love that story because I love to picture the scene.  The King orders the furnace to be turned up and they bind of the 3 men and throw them in.  Then they see 4 men standing in the flames and the "fourth is as the Son of Man".  Wooo!  Gives me goosebumps to think on that!

I know that no matter if I am going through a trial or if I am on the mountaintop of triumph, God is there.  Always.  

Well, those are just a few of the many attributes of God that I am thankful for.  I will post more in the next couple of days but today, I think that is enough for me to focus on and to ponder and to thank God for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

"Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.  Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.  Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.  Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually."  

1 Chronicles 16: 8-11

Thankfulness Challenge: Day 3

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest." 

Joshua 1:9

I'm thankful for a God who is there.  

For the past few weeks in my Sunday school class, we've been learning about the life of Daniel.  My favorite story is the fiery furnace, when God Himself stood in the midst of the fire and flames with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 

Tomorrow, we will finish up the story of Daniel and the lion's den.  I'm just amazed at the fascinating things God has done.  I'm thankful that the same God who stood in the fire and flames and protected Daniel from the lions is the same God that I get to put my trust in.  He's the same God that stands in the flames of my trials with me.  He protects me and keeps me safe and I am nowhere near facing the same kind of trials and conflicts or persecution that Daniel and his friends faced. 

I'm thankful for a God who is there.  He's there when I need Him.  He's there even when I don't think I need Him.  He's there to cheer me, there to comfort me.  He's there to guide and direct me.  He's there, providing for me and protecting me.  I don't have to ask Him to be there, He's just always there.  He's that "friend that sticketh closer than a brother."  

Amazing.

Thanksgiving Challenge: Day 2

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built in him and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."

Colossians 2:6-7

I just got home so I know I am cutting it close with this post but tonight I am thankful for Friday night Bible study.  

When I was in high school, I attended a home Bible study with some friends of mine and I loved it!  I like having plans every Friday.  I like having another opportunity to study God's Word and be around God's people.  

A couple of years ago, we decided to start a home Bible study at my brother's house.  As soon as I heard about it, I knew I wanted to be involved.  

We are now into our 3rd year (I think) and it's going strong!  It's great to look back and see how it's grown and changed and developed.  We studied the foundational doctrines of Christianity, the Tabernacle and other religions.  This fall, my brother started teaching the book of Colossians and once again, I am getting so much out of it!

I thought of the verses above, which we went over tonight, particularly the "as ye have been taught" part of verse 7.

That's the main reason why anybody shows up every Friday.  We all want to be taught something.  Something that will help us.  Something from the Bible, not man's opinion or thought but truth. 

I'm thankful for my brother being willing to study and then teach us and be a guide to us as we study the Bible.  I have been able to observe and learn from him for years now but it has just been within the past year or so that I really started to notice something...he is a teacher.  God has developed that within him and that excites me.  It excites me to see God's work in and through him and to see it in action and to see the fruit of that.  He's doing what God wants to him to do and that's the best thing any Christian can do.

I'm thankful for his wife, who prepares and opens her house each week to our group and makes it a warm, inviting, comfortable and fun environment.

I'm thankful for what I get out of Bible study.  Not only do I get a vast amount of stuff from God's Word that helps deepen my love for the Book and for God and helps and instructs me, but I get so much more.  I get Christian fellowship each week.  I get an opportunity to pray with and for these people.  I get the opportunity to "sharpen" and be "sharpened".  

It's a great way to end my week and start my weekend.  I'm very thankful tonight for our Bible study and everyone who comes.  It's a highlight of my week.

Monthly Challenge: Be thankful!

Well, the first thing I did this morning when I got to work was flip the month on my calendar.  November.  It's finally here!

I love November.  I love the weather, crisp and cool.  I love the smell of November, mulled cider candles burning (or brewing cider on the stove!).  I love the sound of November, the crunch of leaves under my feet.  I love the sight of November, usually the first real snowfall comes this month.  I love the taste of November, thanksgiving meal!

Which brings me to my point: thanksgiving.  The blessed day we have set aside to think upon all the things we are most thankful for and all the wonderful food we consume that day.  I don't know about you but I can't fit all my gratitude into just one day.  I like to try to be thankful everyday, especially during the month of November.  For the past few years, I have kept a list of what I am thankful for and add something new each day of the month.

This year, I'm gonna share that list with you!

I want to focus not just on the things God has blessed me with, which is a lot, but I also want to take some time this month to focus on some of the characteristics of God that I am most thankful for.  Please join me and I encourage you to make your own list!  You'll see just how much God gives to us and it'll help you take time each day to be thankful for something.

So today is November 1st.  I think I'm going to start this month off with being thankful for my salvation.  Last month I had the privilege to share my salvation testimony.  What a blessing!  It had been a long time since I had shared my full testimony with someone.  It was great.

It made me think back though to how I was before I got saved.  I was such a different person.  Different, desires, different attitude, different language, different perspective, different goals.

"Therefore, if any many be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  2 Corinthians 5:17

I am so thankful for the new things He has given me.  He gave me a new life, a new mind, a new home in eternity, new desires, new things to say.  I'm also thankful that the old things are passed away and gone!  Woo hoo!  Man, I love that!  He didn't have to do that, but He did.  Because He's God and He can do that stuff.

So I'm thankful for my salvation.  I'm thankful that I accepted His free gift for me and that He took my place and paid my debt of sin so that I wouldn't have to.  Amazing!

I'm looking forward to this month!  There's so much to be thankful for...I'm just getting started!

Happy November!