We are in that season that makes us pause and just be thankful. We see the posts on social media. I’ve done them too. Where we state one thing we are thankful for every day in the month of November leading up to Thanksgiving Day. I love this as it just seems to make us refocus our thoughts on being grateful for what we have. But I know , that there are times, there have been in my life too, where we are in hard seasons and it may be a little harder to count the blessings. But can I say, that is maybe when we need to be more intentional about what we DO have to be thankful for. I know from experience that those hard seasons of life can eat us alive if we aren’t careful. So for the next couple of weeks, as we lead up to Thanksgiving, I want us to look at scripture and what it says about being thankful.
Our focus verse today comes from Psalms.
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” Psalm 100:4
That little verse is pretty simple and straight forward and doesn’t need much explanation. It lives in the 100th Psalm which is only 5 short verses. It is simply known as a “A Psalm of Praise” or thanksgiving. I read a short commentary from C. H. Spurgeon that bears some repeating here.
“In all our public service the rendering thanks must abound; it is like the incense of the temple, which filled the whole house with smoke.”
We must give thanks! When you light incense or a candle or even those essential oil lamps, they fill the whole space with fragrance. It is a sweet smell that can come from a small vessel. Giving thanks is like that too. When you allow your heart to find something to be grateful for it will fill your heart with a sweet fragrance and will be a sweet fragrance to God. If you are having trouble finding something to give thanks for, just ask God to show you. It may be something simple like a baby’s laugh or the eyes of your child. It may be a glorious sunrise or sunset. It may be whatever your circumstances are or it may be that your circumstances are making it hard for you to find something to be grateful for. If that’s the case, give thanks because you have survived another day. But above all, give Him thanks for something! I truly believe it will bring healing to a bitter soul.
Today, I give thanks for this little community that seems to have come about by all of you who read my simple thoughts. I have reconnected with old friends, and I feel I have made new friends. I am in awe when I see some of you share these devotions. It humbles me so. So today I am grateful for you, the reader who encourages me to keep studying and writing down whatever He teaches me. Please know I am always teaching myself with what I write.
What are you grateful for? What can you find that you can tell Him thanks for? Write it down, maybe in a comment here or just start making your own list. Let’s be intentional at least for a couple of weeks while we lead up to Thanksgiving. Whether your home is beginning to look a lot like Christmas or if it still abounds with pumpkin spice, I think that part of what will prepare our hearts for the joy of Christmas will be giving Him thanks for the everyday mundane things of life that really aren’t mundane but are what makes up our lives!
Restore 