Grateful, Even for the Storms

Grateful, Even for the Storms WENDI LOU LEE “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’ s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) Our family has a Thanksgiving tradition where we go around the table and share what we are thankful for as we remember how God had blessed us that year. It starts out with simple things: marriage, a new baby in the family or a promotion at work. And then there’s that one teenage cousin who always says something about pizza. Just as the comments quiet down, a family member — never the same person from year to year — turns the entire room to silence with a story of God’s faithfulness to them through heartache. The Kleenex box is retrieved from the hall bathroom, and it’s passed down the line to soak up all the tear-drenched faces. There are tears of joy and even tears of sorrow and grief. The tears come from a gratefulness to God for walking beside them during a health issue or the loss of a loved one. For God remaining steadfast when they were lonely, desperate and brokenhearted. Even if the storm is still raging, they feel His presence. Everyone has different family traditions, but we all encounter the storms of life. Harsh and threatening as they seem at first, storms have the ability to pave a unique path to thankfulness. November is an especially thank-filled time for me. This year marks the fourth anniversary of my biggest storm yet — brain surgery to remove a tumor. Learning to trust God through the excruciating headaches, dizziness and mental confusion, and relying on His strength, instead of my own, was a blessing in disguise. It starts out with simple things: marriage, a new baby in the family or a promotion at work. And then there’s that one teenage cousin who always says something about pizza. Just as the comments quiet down, a family member — never the same person from year to year — turns the entire room to silence with a story of God’s faithfulness to them through heartache. The Kleenex box is retrieved from the hall bathroom, and it’s passed down the line to soak up all the tear-drenched faces. There are tears of joy and even tears of sorrow and grief. The tears come from a gratefulness to God for walking beside them during a health issue or the loss of a loved one. For God remaining steadfast when they were lonely, desperate and brokenhearted. Even if the storm is still raging, they feel His presence. Everyone has different family traditions, but we all encounter the storms of life. Harsh and threatening as they seem at first, storms have the ability to pave a unique path to thankfulness. November is an especially thank-filled time for me. This year marks the fourth anniversary of my biggest storm yet — brain surgery to remove a tumor. Learning to trust God through the excruciating headaches, dizziness and mental confusion, and relying on His strength, instead of my own, was a blessing in disguise. This Thanksgiving — before your family digs into the pumpkin pie — reflect on what God has done this year. Offer gratitude not only for the “easy-sailing” blessings, but also for the storms. Dear God, thank You not only for Your countless blessings, but for the challenges that draw us near to You. Thank You for the hard moments when You gave me the strength to wait out the storm. Jesus, You are so good. Whatever storms come into my life, You are my Rock and my Shelter. Thank You for Your sustenance that fills me, Your light that surrounds me, and Your love that never fails. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. TRUTH FOR TODAY: Colossians 2:7, “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (NLT) 1 Chronicles 16:34, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” (NLT)

Why Being Thankful Is a Powerful Way to Live Free

Why Being Thankful Is a Powerful Way to Live Free
By Debbie McDaniel

The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.” Psalms 28:7

We have so much to be grateful for in this life, every single day. But reality is that sometimes constant life demands, battles, and worries give more room to defeat than to a heart of thanks. Or we forget, in the midst of busyness and pressures, just to pause and give thanks for all that God has done and continues to do in our lives.

Sometimes it really is a sacrifice to offer praise and thanks. We may not feel like it. We’re struggling. We’re weary. Or maybe, we feel like He let us down. We think God seems distant, like he’s far away, or doesn’t really care about what’s troubling us. Painful life blows and losses might have recently sent us spiraling.

But here’s what can make a lasting difference. We have a choice, every day, to give him thanks. And with a heart of thanksgiving, we realize that no matter what we face, God doesn’t just work to change our situations and help us through our problems. He does more. He changes our hearts. His power, through hearts of gratitude and focused minds on Him, releases the grip our struggles have over us. We’re strengthened by His peace, refueled by His joy.

No matter what our current situation, or the struggles we may be facing, here’s what choosing to be thankful does:

• It gets our eyes off ourselves, and helps us to focus back on God.
• It reminds us we’re not in control, but that we serve a Mighty God who is. It keeps us in a place of humility and dependency on Him, as we recognize how much we need Him.
• It helps us to recognize we have so much to be thankful for, even all the little things, which often we may forget to thank Him for. It takes our attention off our problems and helps us instead to reflect on the goodness of His many blessings.
• It reminds us that God is the Giver of all good gifts. We were never intended to be fully self-sufficient in this life. A grateful heart reminds us that ultimately God is our Provider, that all blessings and gifts are graciously given to us by His hand.

Here are just a few more truths to remember about thankfulness:

• A heart of gratitude leaves no room for complaining. For it is impossible to be truly thankful and filled with negativity and ungratefulness at the same time.
• It makes the enemy flee. The forces of darkness can’t stand to be around hearts that give thanks and honor to God. Our praise and thanksgiving will make them flee.
• It opens the door for continued blessings. It invites His presence. God loves to give good gifts to His children. He delights in our thankfulness and pours out His Spirit and favor over those who give honor and gratitude to Him.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Maybe you’re in a hard place right now. Maybe you feel like God has left you on your own, to fend for yourself, or the battle seems too hard. Maybe there’s never enough money left at the end of the month and you can’t figure out how to make things work. No matter what, in it all, be assured that God is with you and He cares. Choose a heart of gratefulness today. Make a list of all that God has blessed and filled your life with, that it’s been easy to take for granted at times. Trust He knows what concerns you and is at work even now, to bring you through this uncertain season. Thank Him for providing all you need.

Making it Easier to Apologize

Making it Easier to Apologize
By Meg Bucher

Anyone with children can relate to the desire for an all-access pass to a lie-detector. The look of bewilderment becomes them when accused of withholding the truth. They glance in our direction as if we’ve lost our minds. We know what’s true! So, why do they stronghold us? Why don’t they just admit they’re wrong and apologize? Especially when they know they’ll be forgiven?

It’s not easy to admit we’re wrong. Truth is more difficult to execute that it seems. “Tell the truth,”is a lot harder to flesh out when we’re the ones in the wrong.

We are really good at telling the truths we like to admit to and want to be responsible for, but claiming hurt we’ve caused and retracting false statements and ugly gossip aren’t things we’re known for excitedly admitting and confessing out loud.

“To the Jews who had believe him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31 NIV

Today’s verse tells us to listen for His voice and spend time in His Word. That’s how we hold to His teachings as He instructs in verse 31. Prayer and time in the Word are irreplaceable ways to guide our hearts on a truthful and honest path and guard our hearts from the pride that threatens to kidnap our apologies. It’s only when we are talking to Him that we can listen for His response. And it’s only when we are looking to His Truth for instruction that we can allow the Living Word to translate the truth to our hearts.

The Voice paraphrase reads, “ If you hear My voice and abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; you will know the truth, and that truth will give you freedom.” John 8:31-32 

Jesus says when we operate in this fashion,“we are truly His disciples.” Our walk with Jesus will be humbly honest when we seek Him with all of our hearts. It doesn’t just happen. Seek is a verb. Pray is a verb. Abide is a verb. Verbs are actions. He promises to meet us there, but we have to get up and go.

Wafting through life unknowingly hurting people with dishonest intentions, or living a door mat existence because we can’t sense when to move on from being toyed with, is much less joyful than living a life full of Christ. When we seek and apply His Truth to our everyday lives, we will adopt a different outlook on life. A perspective that seeks to serve, not to be served. To love outright, not keep score.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up agains the knowledge of God, and we take captive every though to make it obedient Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

Many days the battle begins between our ears. There’s no filter for incoming thoughts, but we can control which ones we center our lives around. Wake up and seek Him first. Stay aligned. Keep your thoughts in check, and your heart full of Truth. When we know the Truth, we can dump the lies and live freely in our unique purpose. “I’m sorry,” isn’t so hard when the gentle strength of the Holy Spirit humbles our hearts. There’s nothing weak about it. Just powerfully captivating and extremely kind. It’s living, loved.

Father, Praise You for Your Word! Thank You for guiding us in truth! Forgive us for our blindness to it, and our dishonest notions to others. Help us to seek you, pray, and abide in Your Word to live within Your will for our lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

A Prayer for Family

A Prayer for Family
By Rick Warren

“Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds” - Hebrews 10:24, NCV

I am the man that I am today first of all because of my parents. They instilled in me certain values to care about other people.

Our home was constantly filled with other people. If people were in pain, they were at our house. If they were on the road, they were at our house. If they were going through a conflict, they were at our house. If they were a well-known Christian leader coming through town, they were at our house. One day my dad added up how many meals my mom had cooked for guests in our home in one year. It was over a thousand meals! I grew up learning an attitude of “give your life away” and that it’s not about me. It’s about helping other people.

That’s what awesome families do. They teach each other to show love and to do good deeds. Good deeds are called ministry. They are called service.  

A good example of this is Cornelius’ family in the book of Acts: “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly” (Acts 10:2 NIV).

What a great legacy! Wouldn’t you like to have people writing that about you and your family one day?

Pray this prayer today:

“Dear Jesus Christ, I want to live an awesome life. And I want to have an awesome family. I know I won’t have either if I just live for myself. So today I give myself to you. As for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord. I want my family to be a place of play and fun, not just work and negativity. I want my family to be a place where we encourage each other to grow constantly. I want to be a family that is a shelter in the storm, a safe haven, a refuge. Help me to protect my family — not just their bodies but also their minds. I want my family to serve you by serving others. Help us to find our family mission, our purpose, what you shaped our family to do. Help me to teach my kids to be generous by modeling generosity to God and to others. Help me to have a bifocal vision to not just care about my family but to teach them to care about the whole world. May we model dedication and service and generosity and prayer. I can’t do this on my own, Lord. So I ask you to come into my life and take complete control of every area and give me the power to do the right thing. In your name I pray. Amen.”