Thank You, Jesus…

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven… Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow, which has become our man-made appointment to give thanks… so… I begin today to prepare my answer for the after dinner, around the table declaration, of what we are “thankful” for.

I admit in my natural state, I have never been REALLY grateful. As a child I knew the right words to say, but I was more focused on the next thing to get than understanding that everything, including life itself, was a gift and not owed to me or anyone else. Not thinking of my response to my benefactor, I, like my first ancestors thought ONLY of the effect/impact to ME… when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise…

For a lot of years, my eyes have been on myself and the GOOD effect/impact, and only ask for and be grateful for more of the same. It’s not all my fault… after all I inherited the sin nature… lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life… from the first couple. No, it’s not my fault… but I sure took to the idea like… bees to honey, an addict to a drug, a baby to a nipple.

But… today… after being in rehab for some 30 + years (It is taking me a LONG time to grow up!)… my mind is being renewed and transformed by God.

Thank You, Jesus… for being me benefactor!

Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Thank You, Jesus… for being my benefactor even before I knew You!

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified

Thank You, Jesus… for taking me farther than I could comprehend!

Isaiah 49:16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;Your walls are continually before Me. 

Thank You, Jesus… for writing me on Your hands and on Your heart!

Psalm 100:1-5 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations. 

Thank You, Jesus… for showing me the way and leading me to Your kingdom!

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 

Thank You, Jesus… for the REAL deal!

Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

No, I am not there yet… fully aware and grateful… if I were I would never get up from the full body, face down on the ground, worship of my Life Giver… but someday…

Isaiah 55:12 “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 

Thank You, Jesus… for my future!

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 

Thank You, Jesus… for communion… our dinner!

Our dinner conversation…

Psalm 139:13-18 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.When I awake, I am still with You. 

Our dinner music of praise and worship…

Ephesians 1:3-14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

And the after-dinner effect/impact…

Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

What then shall we say to these things?… Thank You, Jesus!

Romans 8:31-34 If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 

Thank You, Jesus… for praying for us!

Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray, then, in this way:‘Our Father who is in heaven,Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come.Your will be done,On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

Thank You, Jesus… for teaching us to pray!

Romans 8:26-27 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

Thank You, Jesus… for helping us to pray!

John 10:27-30  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Thank You, Jesus… for giving us this day and our family… Your family!

Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Yes, I will still sit at the Thanksgiving table I am privileged to be a part of and I will declare my thanks for every one of the people sitting there and those who are not able to be with us in person but will be brought to our table by our loving thoughts of them. I will declare that it is NOT things I am grateful for (though the food will be decadent and wonderful) but the fellowship… the fellowship of love…

It is indeed the Lord”s day!

For this reason… Ephesians 3:14-19 I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

You tell me Lord God that… Isaiah 55:11 (Your) word which goes forth from Your mouth will not return to You empty, without accomplishing what You desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which You sent it. 

Thank You, Jesus… when spoken into my life it has accomplished and is accomplishing all that You desire.

I pray You will send it out over the whole earth!

Thank You, Jesus…

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible