You deserve joy this thanksgiving! Jesus can help!
WIN International Ministries’s team prays that you had a safe, happy and blessed Thanksgiving! God is good! Jesus is good! Life is still worth living! God’s best is still yet to come!
May the joy of this Thanksgiving run deeper than the people you are with, the holiday you celebrate, and the food you eat. May the presence of Jesus fill you with joy, praise, and genuine thanks!
All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:12-13).
How do we keep our concerns for the future and our hardships from the last two years of Covid 19 from stealing the joy of our Thanksgiving?
Wilbur was a sweet man with a severe countenance — those who didn’t know him would call him dour or crusty. But, his heart was good and generous and kind. His young grandson, who was four or five at the time, came to stay with his grandparents for a week. On weekdays, they had the typical southern breakfast — eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, and coffee. On Saturday, however, Wilbur and Willie Maude usually had cereal, coffee, and juice.
As they sat down at the breakfast table one Saturday, Wilbur asked his young grandson to say the blessing. The little guy loved his grandmother’s big breakfasts. No one, however, knew what to expect when he hesitated for a minute and then prayed: “Dear God, we thank you for this breakfast… even though it’s small. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Wilbur cracked up with laughter every time he told this story!
We have so many things for which we can be thankful. However, if we are not careful, the challenges of our moment in time can wilt the joy right out of our Thanksgiving. The personal challenges of our lives, economic hardships, and the mounting losses associated with the pandemic have been painful. Rising inflation makes life harder for many people, especially folks on fixed incomes who are seriously hurting financially. Job losses, deaths, unexpected illnesses, and family problems all add their weight to our uncertainty and pain.
These ongoing concerns easily give way to fear. Given their negative orientation, our news outlets and gossip magazines increase our anxiety as fear and dread seize our hearts. Our prayers can soon become our laundry lists of things for God to fix. Don’t believe me? Listen to our prayers: “God, please give me…” “Lord, please help me…” “Father, please heal me…” “O God, please rescue me…”
Notice how infrequently we include praise and thanksgiving in our prayers!
Certainly, we should turn to God honestly and openly about the burdens of our hearts to “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). But with our cries for help, we must not forget the importance of being thankful for the incredible blessings we already have in Jesus (Colossians 4:2).
God isn’t asking us to offer any false or forced thanksgiving. He isn’t asking us for some simplistic relabeling of bad stuff. Instead, God is calling us back to the deep spiritual wells of grace we have in Jesus.
Paul emphasized that all of our requests and intercessions should be accompanied by praise and thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2). Even more, Paul demonstrated the power of praise and thanksgiving in his letters and prayers when in prison:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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 4:4-7).
Because we have Jesus, and even more because he has us, our future is secure (Romans 8:32-39). Our relationships in Christ are eternal. All partings and every agony we face here are temporary. With this hope, we can re-frame all of life into a glorious chorus song of thanksgiving:
Cultivate thankfulness… Let every detail in your lives — words, actions, whatever — be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God, the Father, every step of the way (Colossians 3:16-17 MSG).
In Jesus, the liturgy of our lives must be our thanksgiving — not just one day a year, but every day. We offer God our thanksgiving until we enter into the thankful wonder of His presence, at home with Him, forever (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Yes, dear God, we thank you for all the ways you have blessed us, for they are NOT small!
Author P l Ware
