Dear Ones,
I wonder if you are waking to heaps of snow out your window. It is too dark to see how much we got last night and when it gets light I will have to decide if I am going to my exercise class. We have crafts this afternoon and it is a time to catch up on what is happening to our friends here. Tomorrow we hope to get to our daughter’s home on the lake to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Every day should be Thanksgiving Day in the sense that we are full of gratitude and thankfulness. How often we take our many blessings for granted, maybe until one or more are taken away from us and we start complaining. James wrote, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) That means every desirable free gift! All that you have and all that you have experienced is a gift from the Father.

Thanksgiving Day is close at hand. What will make it a great day, not like any ordinary day? I was reading Pastor Mark Roberts from Fuller Seminary who shared how he had an especially wonderful Thanksgiving that began one year when he did a simple prayerful exercise. It is one I hope to try this year and maybe you will desire to do as well. He woke Thanksgiving morning, had a cup of coffee and spent an hour sitting down and just writing all the things he was thankful for…God’s gifts to him: the people in his life, events, etc. He used this journaling as a form of prayer, leaving him feeling so joyful and grateful.

I myself have been reading the book of Philippians each day where I see that same grateful spirit in Paul, even though he was jailed and not in the best circumstances. He thanks the Lord for people in Philippi and for God’s work in them, for the advance of the gospel, and for their prayers and concern for him. He doesn’t focus on the negative but on what lies ahead, and that is his citizenship is in heaven. He tells them to rejoice always and “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let the Lord know their requests. (Philippians 4) He assures them of God’s peace as they think of all that is worthy of praise. He overflows with joy as he prays for the church there and gives thanks to the Lord.

However you celebrate Thanksgiving, may you be open to write down and name the many ways God has blessed you. Whatever comes to mind make it into a prayer of gratitude and praise.

Challenge for today: Find a quiet place to be with the Lord and count your blessings.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy