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 seven with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for God’s calling.

Day Seven:
Thankful for God’s Calling

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.”
1 Timothy 1:12 (NIV)

As I continue this series of posts, I am thankful for a God who has called, empowered, and equipped me to live in service to Him.  In a world, and even a Christian culture, that thinks they hold the keys to who is considered qualified, I thank God that He qualifies all who respond to His calling regardless of what others may say.  That doesn’t mean I’m qualified for everything, but I am qualified for the service He wants to do through me.

I am thankful that God considers me faithful even when I stumble because He knows my heart’s desire to be faithful.  When I consider the work that I’m aware of that God has done through me, the best of it has been things that I didn’t think much of but I did them because I knew He had set them before me.  Throughout my entire life, but particularly in the past five years with the writing ministry, I can clearly see how God has continually blessed a faithfulness in the seemingly small things with an expansion into more — more responsibility, more writing, more books, more effectiveness, and more obedience.

I am thankful that God sees me as a collection of possibilities because He sees what He has created.  Even when the world sees nothing because they are focused on the holes left by what is missing, God views me as His beloved child as He looks at all that is present by His design.  I suppose one of the lessons out of this is to be careful how we judge and view others.  Our words based on what we think is missing in another person can easily harm and damage that person who may very well be exactly as God has created and intended them to be.  I am thankful that even when those harmful words are hurled at us, God does not believe them and instead calls us to reject the lies and listen more intently to Him.

How do you serve God and His people?  Is it always easy?  Why?  How has God gifted you?  How do you discover that?  Are you currently using those gifts to bring glory to God?  In what way?  Do you feel the people around you encourage, or discourage, you to use the gifts God has given you?  Why?  Have you ever quit using your gifts, or at least felt like quitting?  Why?  What would help you to restart, or keep you going, during those times?  How can being thankful for God’s strengthening in your life help you to be faithful in His calling?  How can you encourage others to be faithful in the using of God’s gifting in their life?

As I thank God for considering me faithful and calling me into His service, I pray that you and I would also thank God for one another and for the works of service He has called each of us to.

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 six with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for family.

Day Six:
Thankful for Family

“He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.”
Acts 10:2 (NIV)

A series on giving thanks would not be complete or right without acknowledging and expressing thanks for my family.  While God has indeed blessed me with a great family, I think more importantly He has blessed each of us with the tools to continually grow in relationship with Him and with one another.  I suppose if I could define what I wanted my reputation and that of my family to be, I think the above verse describing Cornelius  and his family would be it.  I am thankful that my wife and I each have parents that brought us up that way and lived out the example seen in Cornelius.

We can only live under a borrowed reputation for a limited amount of time, so I am thankful we found value in the heritage we grew up in and have worked to make it our own.  While the foundation of that heritage was by itself a blessing, I believe the greater blessing was in the lessons learned through instruction and observation that have prepared us to respond in godly ways when faced with difficult times.  We did not request those difficult times, nor are we requesting additional difficulty, but each one has put a choice in front of us as to how we would respond to the difficulty and to each other.  I am thankful that by a combination of God’s grace and our individual commitments to Him, we eventually come out stronger as individuals and as a family.

While I don’t care for trials or errors, I am thankful that through many things, including the old “trial and error” method, we have learned how to not only get along most of the time, but to actually enjoy life together.  I am thankful for a daughter who can be both a challenge and an inspiration — but mostly the inspiration part even through the challenges.  She teaches me much and blesses so many with her ability to just be herself.

How thankful are you for your family?  Why?  How thankful do you feel your family is for you?  Why?  How are the answers to those questions related?  How easy is it for you to answer those questions?  Why?  What would it take for you to be more thankful for them, or them to be more thankful for you?  How much of it is dependent on an action that you or they would take and how much is dependent on a choice you would make?  Does choosing to be thankful help you find more to be thankful for?  What does that say about the times you become dissatisfied or ungrateful?  What will you do about it?

I pray that you and I would continually grow in our thankfulness for our family.  My experience has shown that the more we choose to be thankful for the people in our life, the more we find to be thankful for.

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 five with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for leaders.

Day Five:
Thankful for Leaders

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NIV)

Most Christians know the above verses.  How well we practice them may be a different story, but we know them — or at least we think we do.  We are often reminded, and rightfully so, that we need to pray for our leaders.  Here in the United States and in other places where people have a voice in choosing their leaders, we need to be in prayer for the selection process even before our political leaders are elected.  But what about giving thanks for everyone . . . including those in authority that we may or may not have voted for?

While I wrote this on an off-year election day that I have no one to vote for (municipal elections only in Indiana and I’m a country boy), I am thankful for a process that, while flawed, allows me to live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and holiness.  Yes, I hear the rumblings and I don’t care for the political maneuvering that has been going on for decades (though it is really not a new thing at all).  But I think that if Paul can write to people living under the rule of the Roman empire and urge them to pray and be thankful for those in authority, surely God would want you and I to live the same way in this day and age.

Does your thankfulness for leaders ebb and flow?  Why?  How difficult is it for you to be thankful for someone you disagree with?  Are there things within your disagreement that you can find to be thankful for?  What?  What does the challenging of your beliefs do to your level of conviction regarding what you hold to be true?

I am thankful that no matter who is in charge politically in my city, county, state, and nation, God’s authority will always have the final say.  I am thankful that God has the power and authority to use both good and wicked leaders to accomplish the strengthening of His people.  I am thankful for those who persevere in their faith under severe persecution as they remind me that my faithfulness should not be dependent on the powers of this world.

If you live in a location where you are able to vote for your leaders, spend time in prayer and God’s Word seeking His help and guidance in your decision and then be thankful for both the process and the leaders selected.  If you’re not somewhere that voting is taking place, or it’s beyond election day, spend time in prayer and God’s Word seeking His help to be more thankful “for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

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 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