Loving God, may Your ears be filled with the thanks received from this dear reader for the ways You have answered and worked through their needs each day in which You received a prayer on their behalf; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen!
Happy Thanksgiving, dear loved ones and friends. May the spirit that made possible this National Day of Giving Thanks be behind all your celebrations, reunions, and feasts. May your unending prayer for today be, "Thank You, God!" What a wonderful thing, and a rightful thing it is, for us to give thanks to the One who provides all things. Our attitude should be one of gratitude towards God who shares all things with us. Every Sunday when we gather for worship I ask us all to take a deep breath and it's a reminder that we're still alive and being alive isn't a bad thing. Sunday I said we should give thanks we didn't wake up in the funeral parlor (I used "parlor" for our Winter Texans' sake!). If our prayers were phone calls, what would Heaven's switchboard* look like today? I would imagine God's heart and ears are being blessed by all we offer up in our thankfulness for His being our God and a loving God in our lives.
Here are some ways in which I am blessed and I pray you are as well:
Thank God for being our God. This is worship, the offering of thanks towards a loving God. We thank God for the gift of Jesus Christ. Because of His Son, we have received not only life, but life in abundance (see John 10:10). We thank God for the presence of His Holy Spirit. This is God's way of being involved daily in our lives. The Holy Spirit is here to help us with our prayers (see Romans 8:26-27). We thank God for life and our being alive. We thank God for the gift of love, especially the one we receive from God and the one we're able to share with others. Thank God for the love we receive from others. Never take it for granted, enjoy it and be blessed in it. We thank God for the dear people in our lives and for the memories of those who were dear but who now reside with Him in glory. May any tears we shed today be those of grateful remembrance and for the promises of life beyond this life. We thank God for shelter. We may not have a home, but we're thankful for the places where we can lay down and rest for a night or for a time. For those with homes, thank God for that wonderful blessing. We thank God for food, wonderful and nourishing as it is for our bodies. May that old time prayer of thanking God for the nourishment of body truly serve to nourish our souls.
We thank God for our places of worship and those who labor in them. We thank God for a day in which we can rest, relax, refresh and renew ourselves for today and tomorrow. We pray and ask God to be with those who have to work today. Our public servants of police and fire fighters need our prayers that as they respond to needs, may God bless and protect them. May God bless our nation and all nations. We pray God's blessing upon those who represent us in uniform in dangerous places; may God bless and protect them and keep them out of harm's way. May God work in those who work for our peace bring fruit to those labors that one day we might not know war and conflicts between nations. We pray for those affected by war, the citizens in other countries who are affected by our actions. Keep them safe and blessed too. We pray for the hungry. Most of us will sit at a table filled with food and joy. Some know only a "feast" given during the holidays; may we pray and act on making sure those who are hungry might find food every day.
We thank God for all we have and we pray that our hearts would today be more thankful for the gifts of Spirit, friendship and fellowship than in material goods.
May this be a truly blessed day for you and yours.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
