Thanksgiving.  What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read or hear that word?  Is it a day, a family meal, or perhaps a specific menu of foods?  Is it an attitude that comes and goes based on how you feel?  Or is it a way of life which flows from you regardless of your circumstances?  These devotions I will be sharing this month were originally written throughout November 2019 and then edited/updated during the summer of 2020 for a 31 day devotional journal, “The Heart of Thanksgiving:  Living a Life of Thankfulness”.  I will be re-sharing them here this month to encourage each of us to pursue a greater spirit of thankfulness in all we do.

Here is day four with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for the kingdom of light we belong to.

Day Four:
Thankful for a Kingdom of Light

“Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
Colossians 1:12-13 (NIV)

After photographing them every chance I get over a period of many years now, I never get tired of seeing a brand new sunrise or sunset.  In fact, I get rather disappointed when I have the availability of time at the beginning or end of a day and the clouds keep me from seeing the sun coming or going in its usual splendor.  I find the darkness of dimly lit days or even rooms with subdued lighting to be depressing.  I suppose that is part of the reason I am so thankful that I serve a God who has called me into His glorious light.

In Jesus Christ, we are rescued from the power and authority of the darkness of this world so that we may share in the kingdom of light with those who, through faith, have already obtained that inheritance.  One of the problems of light, though, is that it exposes the things that can be hidden by darkness.  Things which often show us to be less than what others want or expect.  Yet I am thankful it is not those things either hidden by darkness or exposed by light that determines my eternal destination.  No, it is God who qualifies me through the blood of His Son, Jesus, to walk in His light both now and forevermore.

Do you prefer living in darkness or light?  Why?  How thankful are you when God’s light shines into your life?  Why?  How does your recognition of the darkness you have been called out of influence the level of  gratitude you have for God’s kingdom of light?  Have you ever been somewhere and wasn’t sure within yourself that you belonged?  What does knowing that the one in charge qualified you to be present do for your confidence?  Is that confidence then placed in yourself or in the one who qualified you?  How is the confidence you have in a God who has qualified you for His kingdom of light expressed by you to Him?  Does your gratitude help the people around you know that they too can be qualified by God to belong in His kingdom?  How?

It is my prayer that I would never forget who has brought me into this kingdom of light and His desire for all to dwell within it.  I pray that my thankfulness to God for His work in qualifying me for this kingdom would extend to being thankful to Him for qualifying you also.  May each one of us not only know that we have been qualified by God for His kingdom, but may we also answer that call by stepping out of whatever darkness that we have become comfortable in.  And may we give thanks to God for those who have lived, and currently live, as examples of faithfulness within the kingdom of light.

In prayer,

Tom  

Thanksgiving.  What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read or hear that word?  Is it a day, a family meal, or perhaps a specific menu of foods?  Is it an attitude that comes and goes based on how you feel?  Or is it a way of life which flows from you regardless of your circumstances?  These devotions I will be sharing this month were originally written throughout November 2019 and then edited/updated during the summer of 2020 for a 31 day devotional journal, “The Heart of Thanksgiving:  Living a Life of Thankfulness”.  I will be re-sharing them here this month to encourage each of us to pursue a greater spirit of thankfulness in all we do.

Here is day three with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for the times of refreshing that God brings into our life.

Day Three:
Thankful for Times of Refreshing

“Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.”
Proverbs 25:25 (NIV)

As I continue contemplating yesterday’s thought of being thankful for the indescribable gift of God that we have been given through His Son, Jesus, I am also thankful for the refreshing that comes from the good news found in God’s Word.  There has been no greater distance traveled in the sharing of good news to mankind than the journey Jesus made from heaven to earth.  As ambassadors of God’s kingdom, we have the privilege and responsibility to share that good news with others so they too would be refreshed.

As I thought about the above verse from Proverbs, I began to recall times when cold water has been most refreshing to me.  There were the summer days as a youth stacking hay in the uppermost parts of the barn, the garden work under the blazing sun, the early adult years working on a commercial roofing crew where the only thing hotter than the air temperature was the hot tar being used to lay the fiberglass roofing felt, and summer days when the outside work just had to be done regardless of the difficulty.  In all of those times, and so many more, there is a forgotten part that takes place just before the refreshing — the shock!

Sometimes the truth of God’s Word is such a shock to the way we’ve been living life that we’re not so sure we want the refreshing it offers — or if it even has the ability to refresh at all.  I am thankful that life has taught me the momentary shock of a tall glass of ice cold water is worth the eventual refreshing that it brings.  I am more thankful that God’s Word brings a lasting refreshment to my life that is so powerful the shock of conviction and needed change melts away quickly as the love of God transforms my heart, mind, and soul.  In this process, thankfulness becomes the fuel that helps keep the refreshing alive through the hills and valleys of a life filled with things which bring weariness.

Have you been refreshed by the good news from a distant land?  How has that news changed you?  When do you most need reminded of the refreshing that comes from God’s Word?  Does the way you live and share the truth of God’s Word bring refreshing to others even if it has a moment of shock to it?  Why?  How does choosing to be thankful for the refreshing that comes from God help you to refresh others?  What role does gratitude have in how refreshed you feel each day?  How will your thankfulness for God’s refreshing help you to share it?

I pray that you and I would be thankful each day for the good news of the transforming power of Jesus that comes from a land so far away yet so very close.

In prayer,

Tom  

Thanksgiving.  What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read or hear that word?  Is it a day, a family meal, or perhaps a specific menu of foods?  Is it an attitude that comes and goes based on how you feel?  Or is it a way of life which flows from you regardless of your circumstances?  These devotions I will be sharing this month were originally written throughout November 2019 and then edited/updated during the summer of 2020 for a 31 day devotional journal, “The Heart of Thanksgiving:  Living a Life of Thankfulness”.  I will be re-sharing them here this month to encourage each of us to pursue a greater spirit of thankfulness in all we do.

Here is day two with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for God.

Day Two:
Thankful for God

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! “
2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

I think I would be rather amiss if I wrote a series on giving thanks without an umbrella focus of being thankful for God.  The gifting I receive from God is so multi-faceted that it would be impossible to list all of it without missing something.  Yet most of the list would be things I could describe once I recognized I had received it.  The one gift that I’ll never be able to fully describe (at least not until I see Him face to face, and then there would be no point in describing it) is the gift God has given of Himself.  There is so much wrapped up in this indescribable gift that I’m sure elements of it will be present in most of this series of devotions on giving thanks.  And while there is an element of God giving and me receiving because God has given Himself, I will still use this as a reminder to simply be thankful for God’s presence even more than His presents.

For me, God is at the very center of my ability to be thankful.  Yes, I know people who don’t believe in God yet live with varying degrees of thankfulness.  But even without their recognition of it, He is generally the source of that for which they are thankful.  Being thankful for God, and the gift of Himself through Jesus, helps me to acknowledge His goodness as the provider of every “good and perfect gift”.  Beginning each day with a genuine thankfulness to God for Jesus helps me to have a thankful attitude when the day doesn’t go as I would wish or plan.  When I am truly thankful for God’s grace extended to me each day, I find it is much easier to remain thankful when I need to extend that same grace to others.

When you strip away the natural tendency to focus on the many presents that come from God and spend time simply considering His presence, it shouldn’t take long to realize a spirit of thankfulness welling up inside you.  While the efforts to describe this most precious of gifts will always fall short, the gratitude Jesus puts within you should be constantly growing as you put into practice a spirit of thanksgiving.  It is like the healthy relationships we ought to have with our closest friends — while we definitely value the things the do for us, the depth and closeness of the relationship is measured by the value we place on just being together.  Even if the actions and tangible gifts brought us together, the greatest friendships are those which continue to grow just because we desire the presence of one another.  When we learn to be thankful at that level, we have made great progress in being thankful for God.

As you spend this month thinking, and praying, about being more thankful, I pray that you and I would always begin by being thankful for God’s indescribable gift!

In prayer,

Tom