Gratitude

Bless affectionately, gratefully praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not one of all His benefits.  Psalm 10:3:2

I stopped by a large retailer the first week in November (only days after Halloween) and to my surprise, the Christmas music was already playing in regular rotation over the loudspeakers.  The past few weeks, my inbox has been bombed with various Black Friday sales specials and some of my neighbors already have all of their Christmas decorations out.  Don't get me wrong as  certainly I enjoy Christmas and celebrating the birth of my Savior, but what about Thanksgiving?  It seems to be the forgotten holiday. 

As a child, it was easy to discount Thanksgiving as a day to eat turkey and think about the pilgrims who bravely sailed across the globe to America, but as an adult, Thanksgiving has taken a whole new meaning.

In addition to eating a wonderful spread and of course, the Iron Bowl, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate and give thanks to God for all of His many blessings.  I have been reflecting on this for several days now and when I begin to think about all that God has blessed me with, it’s hard to keep track of it all.  

It’s easy to get swept up into all of the traditions on Thanksgiving Day, but we cannot allow the activities crowd out the real purpose of the day.  Make a list of all that you are thankful for and express your special thanks to God for all He has blessed you with! 

Longer

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Ephesians 1:4

I was in my hotel getting ready for a meeting this week and was feeling a bit down on myself for eating so much junk food over the past few days of travel weeks.  It's hard to make healthy food choices when you are on the road so much, entertaining clients over lunch or dinner, or having to eat fast food as you are making your way through a crowded airport.   If I am being totally honest, my fear is that I will revert back to weighing as much as I did while in college, when I weighed an astounding 226 lbs.  I know that won’t happen as things were much different for me back then-physically and spiritually.

I did not feel downtrodden for too long as I came across the above scripture from Ephesians, where God reassures us all that he indeed loved us, even before he created the world.

Because He first loved us, he sent Jesus to earth to live a sinless and blameless life to atone for our sinfulness on the cross. If you are like me and sometimes need reassurance, just know that you are indeed loved by God; he paid the ultimate price for our holiness and the eternal promise of heaven!

Distractions

Jesus told him, "Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”  Luke 9:62

I was driving home in the pouring rain the other evening and took my eyes off of the road for only a split second and hit some standing water on the highway that almost caused me to hydroplane.  Luckily, I was able to regain control of my car quickly and the rest of my ride home was a white-knuckle ride to say the very least.

Just like the standing water on the road, distractions can also take our focus off of Jesus.  We might be doing some great things, but if we take our eyes off of our Lord for a moment, we can quickly stumble and fall.  The enemy will stop at nothing to try and distract us.

When our minds are focused on God, we are less likely to be tempted and sin, so the enemy will stop at nothing to make sure our thoughts are not focused on our Loving God.  There are other distractions that can cause us to be distracted as well-busyness, material things, problems, and even things we enjoy, can all cause us to lose our focus on God.

Be aware of these things that distract our minds so that you can minimize them and stay on course with righteousness. 

Help Me Somebody!

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.  Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

If that verse sounds familiar, it could be because it’s the exact same verse I wrote about in yesterday’s Daily DEVO, this time it’s taken from The Message.  I enjoy this paraphrased version of the same Scripture because it just makes perfect sense to me.  I also felt it important to add to yesterday’s DEVO that we should all be humbled enough to cry out to God for help when we need it.

Too often, our pride gets in the way and we refuse to turn our problems over to our Loving Father who wants to give us a rest from all of our worrying and anxieties we face on a daily basis.

Our beginnings do not have to dictate our endings-we need to let God be involved with every area of our lives and allow Him to lead us into “real rest.”

Soul Kitchen

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. (I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.) Matthew 11:28

Every year for as long as I can remember, the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas have been crazy busy at work, not to mention trying to squeeze some personal time in to shop for gifts/ presents and attend various holiday parties/functions.  

Jesus gave us all such a wonderful model of what it is like to truly “rest.”  If you read the New Testament, Jesus typically went to spend time in solitude with the Lord after preaching, teaching, or performing miracles…

You see, we can be involved in inward activity as much as we are involved in outward activities.  God wants us to not only enter into His rest for our bodies, but our souls as well.  I am a believer that finding rest for my soul means “unplugging” and finding freedom from mental activities too.  Furthermore, it means submitting to God and not trying to figure out what I should do about every aspect of my life as I simply can’t keep trying to come up with answers I just don’t have.

At the end of each day, experience rest and peace for your soul by going to Christ and allowing Him to relive and refresh you from the inside out!  What an awesome privilege we have!!  

The Real Me

I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in the right path. Proverbs 4:11

I have been pondering something recently-if our view of God is shaped by our circumstances.  If they are going well, do we have a positive outlook as it pertains to God?  What about  if things are going badly? Do we think negatively about God?

God sees the totality of our lives.  He knows us better than anyone-inside and out.  He knows our thoughts, feelings, our past, present and futures.  God sees the whole of who we are, what we are called to do and what circumstances we are facing at this very moment.

The more we see our lives from God’s perspective and not our limited understanding, the stronger our ability to discern the right way to go.  There is no one better qualified than God to guide our lives and lead us down the right paths.

Trouble

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.  For things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.  2 Corinthians 4:18

It's hard to not be troubled by all that's going on in the world today.  Just tune into the national news for a few moments and you will find that there is never a shortage of disaster on any given day. 

Regardless, God promises us that the troubles looming in front of us will not last forever.  Our goal should be to shift our focus away from the trouble we now see and look instead to the things that will last forever-God's love, his gift of salvation, his care for us, and eternity in heaven with him.

When we live with a heavenly perspective, it puts the hurt and troubles we experience in this world in their proper place-temporary and we know they won't last.

We can live with confidence despite our struggles today knowing that God promises each of us a world where there is no more hurt or pain.