Give Thanks
Psalms 107:1 (ESV) 1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (ESV) 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Today we celebrate another Thanksgiving, where we in the United States we remember those first settlers to our shores and the meals shared with the Native Americans. Elementary school kids put on plays and homes are decorated with autumn wreaths, pumpkins, and other seasonal decorations and the smell of apple cider permeates the air. We gather with families and friends to enjoy tables burdened down with food followed by football, football and more football.
As a child I remember Thanksgiving was celebrated at my Aunt Dean’s house on Shackleford Road. The house was filled with laughter as we joined our grandmother, aunts uncles and cousins in our annual Thanksgiving feast.
When we moved to Richmond with Reynolds Metals we took turns with Coralie and Larry Hawkins in hosting a meal for all of our little conclave, and later in Pittsburgh we enjoyed a smaller version of our annual tradition.
After returning home, our tables overflowed with food as family and friends gathered for what has always been my favorite holiday, inspired I am sure by those long ago memories made on Shackleford Road.
Some have adopted the practice of volunteering at shelters to serve a Thanksgiving meal to those without a home. For Christ followers, the practice of being thankful predates our secular rituals, as the Bible is replete with encouragement for us to give thanks, first to God and then to others.
So, on Thanksgiving, 2025, I am thankful for salvation, for God’s faithfulness, and for a church where I can worship with other believers and deepen my relationship with Jesus. I am thankful for family, whether near or far, and for both the challenges and rewards that are part of life.
I am reminded of a song we sang in grade school, and am closing with the following lyrics.
- We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own. - Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!
May we be thankful to our Lord and Savior today and every day.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer is the Key
Acts 12:1-19 (NIV) 1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.
18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
What a perilous time in the life of the Church. James, also known as one of the Sons of Thunder, had already been martyred, and because this action pleased the Jewish leaders, Peter faced the same fate. But God…
You see, we can never give up as long as God has a plan. And God always has a plan.
As Peter slept, an angel appeared and the laws of nature were thrust aside. Peter’s metal manacles fell to the ground and heavy iron gates were flung open, all without a sound. No one saw Peter nor the angel, and when Peter arrived at the home of fellow believers, he was left outside while those who had gathered to pray for him tried to understand what was happening.
What was happening? Their prayers had been answered! Father God, may I never be part of a prayer group whose prayers are successful, and then I wonder what is going on!
May we always approach the Throne of God with untarnished faith, thanking God before the miracle occurs, and praising Him afterwards.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
With All My Praise
Psalms 104:33-34 (NIV) 33 I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the LORD.
Psalms 27:4 (NIV) 4 One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
Psalms 27:13-14 (NIV) 13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
And just like that, we have arrived at Thanksgiving. How do the days rush by, so many without any seeming significance? Yet, each day that God gives us breath, we have reason to praise.
Don’t you love David’s resolve? “I remain confident,” “I will see the goodness,”and “I will sing praise.” These are not timid statements, nor are they dependent upon anything God is doing!
Years ago, I wrote a short chorus, praising the Lord of Lords. Allow me to share it with you.
Jesus is the rock of my salvation and my strength
He lifts me high above the heads of all my enemies
He hides me in His pavilion in His secret dwelling place
where I behold the beauty of his face
Higher and higher, higher and higher, I will lift Him above all others
Higher and higher, higher and higher, come on sisters and brothers
He said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me, so lift Him higher
for all the world to see.
May we, too, lift our praises, higher and higher, to the God of all, to Jesus our Lord, and to the Holy Spirit, our, Comforter and our Guide.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Joy No Matter What
“Hab 3:17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.”
“1 Thess 5:16 Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. “
One of the primary themes that arises from the book of Habakuk is that the righteous shall live by faith. We can either shake our fists in anger towards God during the midst of a storm, or we can bow down on our knees, thanking God for His safekeeping thus far.
In the midst of the storm, why not try turning to Scripture? Read Ps 27, Ps 91, Is 55:12, Jer 29:11, and Rom 8:28 for encouragement. (Try looking at these scriptures in an Amplified Bible for added benefit.)
Singing praises to God in times of difficulty not only produces joy in the singer, but it is also a witness of God’s faithfulness to all who hear. Such an attitude is pleasing to God.
Do you see a pattern developing here? “Though there are no sheep in the pen…yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” If you can’t rejoice for what He has given you, rejoice for Who He is. If your distress is too much to bear, and you simply cannot find joy, tell Him that, too (He knows anyway.) If you want to develop hind’s feet that will carry you above the storm clouds, then you must learn to rely on the strength of the Lord. If you can’t trust anyone else in this world, you can trust Him.
Reliance on Jesus does not grow stronger in the good times, but during the storms.
Our Father desires that we live in joy, but what happens when we lose that joy?
John 10: 10 says: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. “
Satan knows he cannot steal our salvation, so what has he come to steal? Our joy! If Satan can steal our joy, then he can kill our enthusiasm and destroy our witness. That’s a pretty good victory for someone described in scripture as the father of lies.
You can’t think of any sin that would have caused you to lose your joy? Then go before God and ask Him for a revelation. You might just get a glimpse of whatever has separated you from God, because that’s what sin does. But when the Cross bridged the gap between sinful man and a Holy God, a way was made for reconciliation.
Admittedly, joy is sometimes lost because the burdens we bear are overwhelming, and joy seems to be the first casualty. We may not have control over all of the circumstances in our life, but we do have control over how we react to those circumstances. Do you feel like crying? Try singing, instead. Do you feel like giving up? Try giving of yourself to someone worse off than you. Joy is easier to keep and harder to lose if we share it with others.
Summary
- Joy is a grace gift grown during storms.
- Joy can be yours regardless of circumstances.
- Joy is increased through singing praises to God for His great mercies.
- Joy can only produce joy.
- Storms both reveal and produce character.
- Joy can be lost, but it can also be found again.
- Repentance restores joy.
May we seek joy, today and every day, and may we remember the source of our joy.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Be Exalted
Psalms 57:1-5 (NIV)
1 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who vindicates me.
3 He sends from heaven and saves me,
rebuking those who hotly pursue me—
God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.
4 I am in the midst of lions.
I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
Hiding from the Storm
One of the scariest elements of storms is the difficulty in predicting how long they will last. A flash storm can produce flooding that can be more dangerous than the storm itself. Or what about a family member or acquaintance who has a flash temper, the effects from which can be more fatal than from nature’s storm.
When David wrote Psalm 57, he was on the run from Saul, hiding in a cave. David, God’s chosen and the future king of Israel, sought shelter in a dark, damp cave. But may I direct your attention not to where he was, nor even why he was there? Look, instead, at how he spent his time.
First, he asks God for mercy. David could have pled for Saul’s mercy, but Saul was fighting his own demons. So David bows before the most high God, the One who had proven Himself to have the quality of mercy time and again. You see, when you are in the midst of the storm you need an established ally, one who has shown His faithfulness.
Then, David lifts up high praises to the One, True and living God. Be exalted, Oh God, above the heavens! If we would only follow David’s example when the storm clouds gather!
May we keep a song of praise in our hearts and on our lips so that even in hiding we can have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Seeking Holiness 