As I write this, it is Thursday, Thanksgiving Thursday. Kathy and I are preparing a pretty non-traditional Thanksgiving meal - ribs not turkey - and I am thankful we get to "color outside the lines". LOL
One of our traditions during our Thanksgiving meal is to go around the table and share at least one thing we are thankful for. I hope each of you have that opportunity this Thanksgiving 2024.
So today I share a few items of Thanksgiving but also want to share some things from others...do you have your own list? Has God opened your heart to being grateful today?
My list:
1. My relationship with Jesus Christ. Without His hope I would be lost.
2. My wife. She has been a gift from God being an anchor in the storms of life and a partner in my walk with God.
3 My family - despite challenges this year in some of the extended family, God has been generous in showing His love, drawing me not only into a closer relationship with Him but also with my sons and their children.
4. God's call on my life for teaching about Him as a retirement avocation, blessing me with new understandings of His Word.
My friend who publishes a daily devotional email, Arlin, shared this from one of his connections:
A Word from the Word
by Bill Long
We all know the drill. November is Thanksgiving month; let’s crank up the gratitude, even if it hurts, and turn it on for the family. Of course, there usually is sincerity in the gratitude, but in my experience it is one of the Biblical virtues most easily faked. I was mulling the dilemma of its centrality to life but the difficulty in making it a genuine part of our daily lives when I happened upon a list of several virtues in Colossians 3:13-16.
What struck me was that gratitude was the only one that got its own sentence. The rest are in a long list: be merciful, kind, long-suffering, etc., but gratitude stands by itself in its own three-word sentence in 3:15. It is almost as if the author knew that it was difficult for us to get a correct perspective on gratitude, and so decided to pause and tell us of its unique importance.
But what particularly struck me about the three Greek words making up the sentence in 3:15 is that it really doesn’t say what most of our translations have. Most of our versions read: “And be grateful.” Yet, at the risk of being a bit technical the verb is a “becoming” rather than a “being” verb. A “becoming” verb emphasizes process; a being verb emphasizes one’s state of existence.
So, rereading the last three words of Colossians 3:15 yields, “And become grateful.” Now THAT is something I can really embrace.
I love how it speaks to the journey we are on for those who are followers of Jesus - the idea of becoming resonates with me. Maybe you as well? We are not all at the same place in our journey with Christ but are being sanctified by Him (that alone should bring some gratitude into our lives) and that journey is not always easy. Paul shares in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 " give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
To get to the point Paul is referring to we need God to do heart work on us. And that takes time. So I am grateful that here in America we have a holiday that focuses us and our hearts on work God has been doing in our lives over the last year. It is a deep and invaluable blessing we receive when we pause and see the work of God in our lives - even through the hard things.
WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR THIS THANKSGIVING?
Lord Jesus, my prayer as we go into this upcoming weekend, we focus on Your sanctifying work over the last year and that pause to lift up Your praise in deep gratitude for how you have drawn us nearer to You and Your beautiful loving presence! Amen.
Enjoy this weekend knowing the truth of the work, the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus,
Patrick Engesser
One of our traditions during our Thanksgiving meal is to go around the table and share at least one thing we are thankful for. I hope each of you have that opportunity this Thanksgiving 2024.
So today I share a few items of Thanksgiving but also want to share some things from others...do you have your own list? Has God opened your heart to being grateful today?
My list:
1. My relationship with Jesus Christ. Without His hope I would be lost.
2. My wife. She has been a gift from God being an anchor in the storms of life and a partner in my walk with God.
3 My family - despite challenges this year in some of the extended family, God has been generous in showing His love, drawing me not only into a closer relationship with Him but also with my sons and their children.
4. God's call on my life for teaching about Him as a retirement avocation, blessing me with new understandings of His Word.
My friend who publishes a daily devotional email, Arlin, shared this from one of his connections:
A Word from the Word
by Bill Long
We all know the drill. November is Thanksgiving month; let’s crank up the gratitude, even if it hurts, and turn it on for the family. Of course, there usually is sincerity in the gratitude, but in my experience it is one of the Biblical virtues most easily faked. I was mulling the dilemma of its centrality to life but the difficulty in making it a genuine part of our daily lives when I happened upon a list of several virtues in Colossians 3:13-16.
What struck me was that gratitude was the only one that got its own sentence. The rest are in a long list: be merciful, kind, long-suffering, etc., but gratitude stands by itself in its own three-word sentence in 3:15. It is almost as if the author knew that it was difficult for us to get a correct perspective on gratitude, and so decided to pause and tell us of its unique importance.
But what particularly struck me about the three Greek words making up the sentence in 3:15 is that it really doesn’t say what most of our translations have. Most of our versions read: “And be grateful.” Yet, at the risk of being a bit technical the verb is a “becoming” rather than a “being” verb. A “becoming” verb emphasizes process; a being verb emphasizes one’s state of existence.
So, rereading the last three words of Colossians 3:15 yields, “And become grateful.” Now THAT is something I can really embrace.
I love how it speaks to the journey we are on for those who are followers of Jesus - the idea of becoming resonates with me. Maybe you as well? We are not all at the same place in our journey with Christ but are being sanctified by Him (that alone should bring some gratitude into our lives) and that journey is not always easy. Paul shares in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 " give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
To get to the point Paul is referring to we need God to do heart work on us. And that takes time. So I am grateful that here in America we have a holiday that focuses us and our hearts on work God has been doing in our lives over the last year. It is a deep and invaluable blessing we receive when we pause and see the work of God in our lives - even through the hard things.
WHAT ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR THIS THANKSGIVING?
Lord Jesus, my prayer as we go into this upcoming weekend, we focus on Your sanctifying work over the last year and that pause to lift up Your praise in deep gratitude for how you have drawn us nearer to You and Your beautiful loving presence! Amen.
Enjoy this weekend knowing the truth of the work, the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus,
Patrick Engesser
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