Thanksgiving

BIBLE READING: 1 SAMUEL 2:1-10; LUKE 1:46-55

Thanksgiving is an act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favours or mercies and as a child of God, giving thanks should be part and parcel of our lives. The fact that we are alive is but for the mercy of God and every morning we wake up to a new day is a reason to give thanks to God.

The month of October is a month I set aside to give “intentional” thanksgiving and try to insulate with God as much as possible because it is the month God decided to send me to this world as an Ambassador for His kingdom. For me the New Year does not really start in January but October, so I try as much as possible to hide away from the people and spend more time alone with God. I do my own personal retreat, do a spiritual check up and seek the mind of God for the New Year. It took a while for me to get “on the job” as an Ambassador but I give Him thanks that this was His plan for me from the beginning and I finally got there in the end. As I said earlier, I take time out to meditate on the blessings of God in my life more than I usually do other months of the year and just take time out to meditate more on Bible verses connected to thanksgiving. The truth is my gratitude journal has actually helped me to concentrate more on thanksgiving this year than ever before. 

Early hours of Friday morning I woke up with this hymn in my spirit, “TELL OUT MY SOUL” authored by Timothy Dudley-Smith (1961)and as I meditated on the lyrics of the hymn, I knew it captured perfectly how I felt about God. The hymn tells us to proclaim the greatness of the Lord, His Name, His might and His Word. All that I am and all that I have comes from Him and without Him I am nothing. It is because of His unnumbered blessings that my spirit voice has found her voice. One of His most important blessings is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, without Whom my own spirit will not have found the right voice and my life will not be where it is right now. I absolutely love the last line of the last verse and I am extremely grateful to God that His blessings and His greatness extend to my generations forevermore. When I wake up with a Word or song, it confirms the fact that though I may be asleep physically because my flesh needs rest, my spirit, like God’s Spirit, neither slumbers nor sleeps and this is another reason I am grateful to God. My spirit is always in constant communication with His Spirit and waking up with a Word or song confirms this to me. I am sure I will wake up every morning this month with a Scripture or song that will increase my revelation on THANKSGIVING and I will be sharing some of them with you this month.

As I continued to meditate on the text of this hymn, I remembered Hannah’s prayer at the dedication of Samuel to the Lord and the Magnificat (Mary’s song of praise when she found she was pregnant in Luke 1). Mary makes a lot of reference to God’s greatness (Luke 1:49,52),His Name (Luke 1:47),His might (Luke 1:49, 51-52),His mercy (Luke 1:48,54)and His Word (Luke 1:55).  Hannah also in giving thanks to God made reference to the same thing. She testified to God’s ability to reverse circumstances, to protect, to strengthen, to lift up the humble and bring down the proud. She testified to God caring for the oppressed and always fighting for them and how He always protects those who put their trust in Him (She calls them His faithful ones).

One thing I learnt from these two women is, all God needs is for us to be faithful to Him. All He is looking for is a thankful, humble and obedient heart and He will provide all the security and stability I need. God, the Creator and Ruler of all we can see, is able to change circumstances, pull down and build up, provide all we need and most importantly bless us with an abundant life (spiritually, emotionally and physically) here on earth.  

One thing I have learnt today from this hymn is thanksgiving involves testifying about God’s greatness, His Name, His might, His mercy and His Word/Promises to the world.

WELCOME TO A MONTH FULL OF ABUNDANT BLESSINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST AMEN.

UNDER GRACE UNDER MERCY