crazy busy. There are things to get at the grocery store for our Thanksgiving dinners, houses that need to be cleaned for our guests, and traveling that needs to be planned out. We have so much to be thankful for and we tend to be really good at thanking God for all the blessings in our life around Thanksgiving, which is a really good thing.
But as I was reading in Joshua, a question came to mind. Joshua 24:15 tells us to “choose for yourselves today whom you will serve ...” That is a decision that we all need to make every single day of our lives. We can either serve the Creator of heaven and earth or we can serve ourselves via the ways of the world. Since we can’t serve them both, and we can’t serve them half-and-half either, we must decide between the two. Commitment is one of those things that doesn’t seem to be honored much these days, but that’s exactly what God requires of us. We need to be 100% committed to following the Lord. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to still sin and mess up, but hopefully not as much as we used to, and when we do, that we ask for forgiveness much sooner.
So, as we count our many blessings during this time of thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to make sure that we have made a commitment to whom we shall serve: God or self. My prayer is that our answer will be the same thing as we find in Joshua 24:15. “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Heavenly Father, we are told numerous times in Scripture to be thankful, so we know it’s important to You. And since it is important to You, we should be all about it. Help us be mindful of all that we have to be thankful for. With the help of the Holy Spirit, may our praises and thankfulness become as natural to us as breathing. Amen.
7…PRAISE HIM
Good morning! Praying you had a blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends yesterday and that you took time to reflect on all of the blessings God has given you. Through the pages in the Bible, we can find one reason after another why we should be thankful and praise God for what He’s done for us. Today, I camped out in Psalm 111. In these ten verses, the psalmist is encouraging us to praise the Lord and he gives us three good reasons why we should.
The first one is that we should be thankful for all the ways God shows us His power. We can look at nature and see it everywhere. If you’ve ever been to the ocean, it’s easy to see that there could be no other explanation other than it had to be God’s great power at work to command the water to stop when it reached the land.
The second reason we should praise God is because He’s always taking care of our needs. Even when life throws us for a loop, we can look past that problem and see that God is still providing for us everything that we need, like food, clothing, and a place to lay our head at night.
But the most important reason that we should praise God, is for His gift of salvation. Have you ever given much thought to the fact that if we didn’t have Jesus, we wouldn’t be able to have a relationship with God? Since nothing unholy (aka...us) could be in the presence of the holy God, we’d be out of luck. Without the Lord, we would have no hope. But thankfully, we do have hope through Jesus. My prayer for us is that we would never look past all the blessings God has given us, and that each and every minute, of each and every day, we would continuously praise Him!
Lord, help us to see the countless ways that You bless us daily. May we always have Your praises on our lips. Amen.
8…JUST PASSING THROUGH
Good morning! I have been blessed with such a good family. On Sunday, my brother and sister in-law stopped by my place on their way back home to the St. Louis area. The visit and lunch were really nice, but it’s what happened after lunch that was incredible. They gave my house a face lift by flipping two rooms. They took the furniture from the living room and put it in the family room and vice versa. Switching the furniture has given my house a brand new look. It’s amazing!
This morning as I sit here enjoying this room change, I was reminded of another thing about heaven that I’m excited to see one day. In John 14:2, Jesus says, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” Don’t you just love the fact that Jesus, who was a carpenter here on earth, is preparing a dwelling place for us in heaven? Can you imagine what it will look like, especially knowing that we are going to get to our heavenly home by walking on streets of gold? I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to the beauty we will experience there.
As Christians, our forever home is in Heaven. We are just passing through here on earth. But while we are here, we can still keep our focus on heavenly things. Just like a family get-together, you want everyone to be able to come, so our job here is to tell everyone that we can about the home that is waiting for every Believer in Heaven. The gift of salvation not only secures us a home in Heaven but gives us many advantages while we are living here. Once we accept the gift of salvation, we have Jesus by our side from that day forth and the Holy Spirit is our constant companion to guide us through each day. So, here’s to helping others see that “there’s no place like home!”
Lord, our hearts long to be in heaven with You. But until the day that You bring us home, let our lives be focused on bringing others home with us by telling them about the gift of salvation. Amen.
9…RUN THAT RACE
Good morning! As I sit here doing my morning devotion, I am reminded of a verse that has helped me get through the tough times. This verse is on a picture that hangs in my living room. Hebrews 12:1 reminds me to keep pushing on. “Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
In this verse, we are told to run with endurance. Our journey in life is more of a marathon than a sprint. Endurance is when we “cowgirl up” and don’t give in to the situation and let God help us take another step. Sometimes, it’s just taking that first step that we need help with, and other times we need help on the hundredth step, and yet other times we need help for every step. You get the idea.
In my life I have found that venting to someone that I trust about my situation helps me get things off my chest. When I hang onto things and don’t get them off my chest, that’s when the enemy likes to come in and mess with me. He would like nothing more than for me to keep chewing on the same thing over and over because he knows that gets my focus off God and squarely on whatever the situation is.
The best way to not fixate on the problem is to realize what the last line of that verse says...”the race God has set before us.” When I acknowledge the fact that whatever is happening in my life, it is there because God has set it before me, my mindset changes. I must remember that God has either orchestrated the situation or has allowed it to be in my life. Since He has placed it before me, He will be with me in whatever it is. And as long as God is with me, I can endure anything because I am never alone. My prayer is that you also take God with you as you run the race He has set before you.
God, with You by my side, there isn’t any part of the race out there that I can’t run. Thank you for Your constant help. Amen.
10…REASON FOR MY HOPE
Good morning! As I finished wrapping Christmas presents for this year, I stopped to thank God for giving me the means to get out and buy these gifts for those I love. But as I was thinking about all the gifts God has given me, I was once again reminded that the things in life that mean the most can’t be bought. Those things are like the gift of time, memories, family traditions, everyday kindnesses, and genuine love.
Have you noticed that the holidays seem to either bring out the best in people or their worst? I think we see less than their best due to the stress that often comes with the “to do” lists that we create during these times. I don’t know why we make things so complicated. It seems that the simpler we can make holidays, the more we
