Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of a group of children singing the Thanksgiving Day classic … We Gather Together, … declaring our thankfulness to God for all He provides and all He is.
Highlight Passage: Psalm 118: 1 [NKJV] …
1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
… So much for Whom to be thankful in the everlasting mercy extended by our God.
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Highlight Context – Psalm 118:1-14 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The psalmist, with a thankful heart, sings praise for God’s everlasting mercy.
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Reference Passage #1 - Philippians 4: 6 [NKJV] …
5 Be anxious for nothing, but IN EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication, WITH THANKSGIVING, let your requests be known to God.
… Heart-filled thanksgiving in all we bring to God.
Reference Passage #2 - 1st Thessalonians 5: 16-18 [NKJV] …
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
… God, thru Paul, exhorts all Christians to give thanks IN EVERYTHING.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Joe Stowell, used a personal story about his kids to illustrate that good manners and thankfulness don’t come naturally. He wrote, When our kids were young, one of them bluntly said “no” when we passed him some peas for dinner. To which we replied, “No what?” We hoped he would say, “No, thank you.” Instead he said, “No peas!” That led to a discussion about the importance of good manners. In fact, we had similar discussions on numerous occasions.
Dear one, if you’ve had kids or grandkids, or been around little ones at all, you’ve seen that having a grateful/thankful heart does not come without learning … a logt of learning! In other words, thankfulness is not natural. … NO, what is natural is selfishness. What’s good for ME FIRST is the natural state. … What’s good for others may come easier for Christians, but with our sin nature to overcome, being thankful is still an act of will. And most certainly, having the Holy Spirit to help us will allow a Christian to be more tuned in to Christlikeness, of which a thankful heart becomes our goal (as Paul exhorted for all Christians in Phil. 4: 6 and 1st Thes. 5: 18); but it’s still not easy to fulfill shine Christ’s light with a thankful heart - ALWAYS.
On the calendar today we’re going to be celebrating THANKSGIVING. So, at least today, and prayerfully into the future, let’s choose (because, as Christians, we can) to surrender to God’s Spirit and His empowering grace to have a thankful heart in all we think, say, and do.
My Prayer Today: Oh, dear Lord, … Thank You!! … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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