Give Thanks!

 

I remember back to the time before my wife and I were married. I had a bad cold and a sore throat. I was getting ready to go to work and took out a carton of herbal tea bags to take with me to work. In the midst of other preparations, I forgot to take my tea. I walked out of the house and went to my car in the driveway and what did I see? A carton of herbal teabags that my wife-to-be had left for me on the hood of my car! I was overjoyed and thankful for God’s great providence, for the depth of His love that He cared about a little thing like tea for my throat and for the height of His love in blessing me with a loving, Spirit-filled soulmate.

 

God’s love is so great that He delights in doing good things for us.  He offers us the gift of salvation but we don’t need to wait until our next life to experience His goodness to us. We should be open to whatever He brings us each day. He cares about all the big and little things that you will experience today. Jesus performed many miracles. He brought people back to life and healed people of crippling diseases, but He also miraculously provided wine for a wedding feast when it ran out during the celebration.

 

As Christians, we should strive to live in a spirit of thankfulness, remembering that all we have is through the grace of God. I see thankfulness as kind of the “weed and feed” for the garden of our hearts. As thankfulness grows, it kills off bitterness, envy, and a host of other negative feelings, and it allows joy and peace to grow within us. Let’s make thankfulness a conscious part of our lives today.

 

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Col 2:6-7).