giving thanks

Thanksgiving Thursday, November 26, 2009 (5:51 a.m.)

Blessed God,

Thank You! Today we have a full-fledged national holiday reserved especially for giving thanks. Thanks to whom? For what?

Lord, I’m confessing to You right now that for far too long I’ve made this particular holiday far more about the food and the traditions behind them than I have about the people right here in front of me.

Lord, this year may I please do it better? Starting with the song of my heart already ♫Give thanks with a grateful heart; give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His Son…♫

Yes Lord! This is the way I want to start this day. Singing praises of love and thanksgiving to YOU. Blessed Lord, how I ask that You would be the focus of our day.

Today we have an opportunity we’ve not had in MANY years. Four generations will be represented under the same roof. In past years Lord, this gifted occasion was trivialized far more than it was treasured. Lord, today I ask that not to be the case.

As I read Psalm 100, “A Psalm. For giving thanks.” Dear Lord, how I ask Your blessings on this nation, in Your people, on our neighbors, in our families, our homes, our very selves.

Lord, You are so incredibly wonderful! You deserve FAR more recognition and acknowledgement than one football day filled with far more food than we could ever hope to eat, strategically placed the day before “Black Friday” which secularly leads us into another distorted time of ‘preparing ourselves’ to honor the awesome birth of Your precious Son.

Oh Most Blessed God, save us from the insanity of it all! Turn us back to the days that we truly would, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is Him that made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.” (1-3)

Most Dear and Holy God, I read these words and I want to take them IN me this day! Reading them in The Message brings it even closer to reality for me. “A Thanksgiving Psalm ~ On your feet now – applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourself into His presence.”

Oh that I would Dear Lord! Sing myself into Your presence… ♫I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart I will enter His courts with praise I will say ‘this is the day that the Lord has made’ I will rejoice for He has made me glad…♫ (v.4)

Lord, thank You for an extremely unexpected early morning phone call from our ‘just and righteous gift from You’ just now. Thank You for the opportunity to start this day off by sharing Your Word, deeply embedded memories and songs of thanksgiving and praise with one another.

Thank You Lord. May I take You with me today as our continued reason for giving thanks. I love You Lord. Thank You. Amen.

(516 words ~ 7:19 a.m.)