Today we are officially in the Christmas season. Thanksgiving is now over and we are now in a full blown preparation mode for Christmas. I do love Christmas but I love the Thanksgiving season too. I hate to see it come to an end. Thanksgiving is a time I reflect on God's lessons and provisions for our family over the last year. It has definetly been a year of changes for me. I have changed jobs twice, my daughter left for Guatemala and then Peru for her two year job as a Journeyman missionary in the Andres mountains, my son got married, Fusion renovated and moved into a new building, we lost a pet and got two new puppies, I was officially labeled pre-menapausal and started taking hormones, I gave up processed food, and I started writing these devotions. These events have brought an array of emotions. One commonality is the feeling of loss. However, God has been faithful. He has held my hand and strengthened me. I have so much to be thankful for and I praise Him for all He is in my life.
As I was studying the scriptures on thankfulness, I saw a well known verse in a new light. I have sung it many times. "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise." This is the formula for intimacy with God. We enter into His presence by giving Him thanks for all He does for us and we enter into His courts or a closer relationship by praising Him for who is is.
The new revelation was seeing how it relates to the holidays. It dawned on me that we enter the holidays focusing on giving thanks to God for all He has done for us. We then proceed to Christmas where we praise God for His willingness to send His Son to be born among men and be our Savior. We entered into His gates as we celebrated Thanksgiving and offering Him our thankfulness and we will now proceed into an even closer fellowship with Him as we enter into His courts with praise. What have you praised God for recently? May we focus on offering our praise this Christmas season!
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise.
Psalms 100:4
1 comment:
Some of the things I have praised God for recently are; my family, our house being safe while we were gone, traveling safely, my relationship with Jared, Fusion church....
This year Thanksgiving was different for me because I truly thought about all the things I was thankful for and I was blessed for opening my eyes to see these things. One of the biggest blessings ovet the holiday was seeing all the things my famiy wrote and hung on our Thankful Tree.
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