Thursday, November 25, 2021

November 25, 2021 … A Grateful Heart …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 329 


Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...   Please take the time to take in a song and lyrics from Don Moen singing … Give Thanks … poignantly singing of how we Christians need to be coming to God 365-24/7 with a thankful heart because of what Jesus has done for us with His saving/sanctifying grace. 



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Highlight Passage: … Colossians 4:2   [NLT] …   

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.  

  Paul charges fellow Christians to pray continually, coming to God’s throne of grace with a thankful heart.                   

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  Colossians 4:2-6 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul, from prison, exhorts fellow Christians (that’s us too!) to be in continual prayer … with a thankful heart … for all that Christ has done for us, sharing that thankfulness with others at every opportunity.              

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Reference Passage: … Psalm 106:1 and 107:1 [NLT] …  

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  His faithful love endures forever.. 

… A song of thankfulness for our good God. 


Reference Passage: … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK  

… God continually shows His faithful love and mercy to those who who follow Him faithfully. 


Reference Passage: … Ephesians 5:20  [NLT] …  

20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

… Paul charges fellow Christians to give thanks for EVERYTHING in the Name of our Lord, King Jesus.  


Reference Passage: … Philippians 4:6-7 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK  

… Paul shows fellow Christians how to overcome anxiety … i.e., to bring our cares to God in prayer with a thankful heart.    

      

My Devotional JournalToday's Our Daily Bread author, Bill Crowder, AT THIS LINK … quotes Seneca, the ancient philosopher, who had been reprieved from an unjust death sentence, who wrote, . homicides, tyrants, thieves, adulterers, robbers, sacrilegious men, and traitors there always will be, but worse than all these is the crime of ingratitude.”      


Today is our national “Thanksgiving” holiday here in the USA, … set aside to remind us how grateful we should be for the freedoms and God-bestowed blessings we enjoy.  But do we really have the grateful hearts which God’s word calls us to embrace 365-24/7 (see Scriptures above)? 


So many of the OT Psalms <b>(like the two cited above)</b> call us to have a thankful heart.  And in the NT, the Apostle Paul, often writing from unjust imprisonment (as with the highlight passage), exhorts fellow - free - Christians to conquer the anxieties of life by bringing our cares and concerns to God <u>with a grateful heart</u> (see Phil 4:6-7).  


But … on this Thanksgiving Day, can we - or WILL WE - do what Don Moen sings in the linked song [see also 1Peter 5:7 on your own]?                     


My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, …for Your grace, which You give to me EVERY DAY - 24/7!! 

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, …  to express our thanks today to You, Lord, for Your love, mercy, and grace which are new to us every day!   … Amen


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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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