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.

Day thirty-one in the devotional is the outline of a Thanksgiving sermon I shared in 2019 titled, “How To Give THANKS”.  I’ll finish out this series of posts with a week focused on the points from that sermon.  Here is point three with a reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should lead us to give abundantly.

How To Give THANKS:
Give Abundance

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
2 Peter 1:2 (NIV)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10 (NIV)

This version of “How To Give THANKS” is based around a “made-for-the-movies” stereotypical family thanksgiving day.  Here is one of the six things I think we can learn about giving thanks from a traditional Thanksgiving Day gathering:

We give thanks to God, and to others, when we give:

• Abundance: 2 Peter 1:2, John 10:10 — Does anything symbolize the American Thanksgiving Day gathering any more than a table overflowing with every variety of food imaginable — a table of Abundance?  Jesus said He came to not only give us life, but to give us life abundantly!  Do you give thanks with abundance, or just enough to get by?  When we want to celebrate or to remember great things, we would likely never ask how little can I do and still look good.  No, we would examine our resources of every kind to determine how abundantly can I celebrate to make my joy known to all.  When we want to express deep-felt thankfulness it ought to be the same way — not what do I have to do but how much can I do.  Your generosity overflows when you give thanks with abundance.

As we prepare to wrap up a month pursuing a “Heart of Thanksgiving”, I pray that each of us would continually be reminded of all that we are thankful for.  As you pray, ask God to help you live a life of thanksgiving every day.  Pray that your representation of Jesus would show a thankful heart to the people around you.  And thank you for your love, prayers, and encouragement.

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.

Day thirty-one in the devotional is the outline of a Thanksgiving sermon I shared in 2019 titled, “How To Give THANKS”.  I’ll finish out this series of posts with a week focused on the points from that sermon.  Here is point two with a reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should lead us to give humor.

How To Give THANKS:
Give Humor

“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them.’  The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”
Psalm 126:2-3 (NIV)

This version of “How To Give THANKS” is based around a “made-for-the-movies” stereotypical family thanksgiving day.  Here is one of the six things I think we can learn about giving thanks from a traditional Thanksgiving Day gathering:

We give thanks to God, and to others, when we give:

• Humor:  Psalm 126:2-3 –Without a good sense of humor, Thanksgiving and other family gatherings can fall apart quite quickly.  We give thanks when we don’t take our self too seriously.  God says that a cheerful, or merry, heart is good medicine!  I believe that there are boundaries that need to be kept when it comes to humor but laughter is not only good for the spirit, it is good for the body.  This is not only true of an individual but it applies to a family, or a church family, as well.  Don’t take every situation more seriously than it ought to be taken. True joy can shine through brightly when you give thanks with humor.

As we prepare to wrap up a month pursuing a “Heart of Thanksgiving”, I pray that each of us would continually be reminded of all that we are thankful for.  As you pray, ask God to help you live a life of thanksgiving every day.  Pray that your representation of Jesus would show a thankful heart to the people around you.  And thank you for your love, prayers, and encouragement.

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.

Day thirty-one in the devotional is the outline of a Thanksgiving sermon I shared in 2019 titled, “How To Give THANKS”.  I’ll finish out this series of posts with a week focused on the points from that sermon.  Here is point one with a reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should lead us to give “turkey”.

How To Give THANKS:
Give Turkey

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV)

This version of “How To Give THANKS” is based around a “made-for-the-movies” stereotypical family thanksgiving day.  Here is one of the six things I think we can learn about giving thanks from a traditional Thanksgiving Day gathering:

We give thanks to God, and to others, when we give:

• Turkey:  Hebrews 5:11-14 —   I know, you probably have the same reaction that the congregation did this morning — “What?  Did he say what I thought I heard?  He didn’t just say turkey, did he?”.  Yep, I said turkey!  When you think of Thanksgiving, for most people, the first thing that comes to mind is turkey.  It is the traditional main course, the very center and substance to the meal which surrounds it.  When I say, “give turkey”, that is what I mean — give thanks with substance and meat at its very heart.  Don’t settle for simply mouthing the words thank you when you can give thanks with turkey — with real depth and meaning behind it.  This is a thanks that settles in and satisfies the deepest reaches of a person’s being.

As we prepare to wrap up a month pursuing a “Heart of Thanksgiving”, I pray that each of us would continually be reminded of all that we are thankful for.  As you pray, ask God to help you live a life of thanksgiving every day.  Pray that your representation of Jesus would show a thankful heart to the people around you.  And thank you for your love, prayers, and encouragement.

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 thirty with an important reminder that living with a heart of thanksgiving should cause us to be thankful for the promises of God.

Day Thirty:
Thankful For God’s Promises

“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.” 
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 (NIV)

Today I am thankful for the promises of God — specifically the promised return of Jesus to gather those who are His to Himself.  I am thankful that God has given us His promises for the purpose of encouraging one another.  I am thankful that after a month of writing a daily “Giving Thanks” post, I still have so much more to be thankful for than just the things I’ve written about.  I am thankful that we are not only “caught up” to be with Jesus forever, but we “will be caught up together with them” — the “them” being those who are in Christ but have already passed from this life. 

Clouds have a way of obscuring things as they keep us from clearly seeing what is beyond them.  At times, clouds can completely hide known objects from view yet we live with confidence that what disappeared behind the clouds is still just as present as it was when we could see it.  While there have been lengthy periods of time when the clouds take over and it feels like the sun will never be seen again, but the truth is that it is always there even when unseen and it always breaks through the clouds no matter how many days may pass before it does so.   It is in the cloudy days of life that I am most thankful for the unchanging nature of God as it reassures me that His promises will all be kept. 

As I spent the day with my family chasing a steam locomotive to photograph, we kept looking for the clouds of steam and smoke that rose in the air as a tell-tale sign of where it was.  There were even times when the clouds of steam would completely hide the train from view, yet the cloud itself was proof that the train was there.  “Being caught up in the clouds” is an encouragement only if we believe there is something beyond them.  Even when the clouds of this human flesh obscure our vision and understanding of what heaven is really like, we can trust the promises of God that it is not only real but it is a place of complete peace in the presence of God.

As you pray, ask God to help you remember and value His promises.  Pray that your faith would allow you to see, and live with assurance of, that which exists beyond this physical realm.

I pray that you and I would continue to be thankful every day that God gives us life.  I pray that we would hold fast to the promises of God in such a way that we are encouraged by His faithfulness.  I pray that we would encourage one another as we trust God with everything that is beyond our vision.

In prayer,

Tom