I thank God that I am able to write this today, that I had a safe trip to and from NC. I passed the last 2 exams which I took in September. They were tough and I was honestly a bit nervous. Maybe " a bit" is an understatement. They are tough and expensive time and money-wise. God truly was with me because they were tough but I survived them by His will.
It's only fit for me to talk about thanksgiving because it is that time of the year again. We get to reflect on all the good things God continues to do for us. Though it is the season, I wish I and all of us could be more thankful like this all year long, not just in November. We have so much to be thankful for and even for me to be writing this and for you the reader to be reading this is something to be thankful for. We have been instructed to:
[6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6.
[8] Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.
[34] O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. 1 Chronicles 16:8, 34.
Think about the food we eat everyday! We eat because God provides rain thus giving us food not only to feed us but even livestock which we in turn eat also as is written:
[17] Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. Acts 14:17.
We get so used to seeing food in the stores like Wal-mart and forget that it is not grown there. It takes rain for us to get the food we eat everyday. I confess that I take it for granted at times and forget that if it doesn't rain for years like it did in Elijah's time, for 3 and a half years, we will be in trouble. These are things that I get so used to and I assume you do too and we take them for granted. We have so much food here and take it for granted and yet there are millions starving to death, who don't know where their next meal is coming from in some parts of the world. These souls know what living by God's grace is first hand. So much food we throw away here and don't even think about it. We have shelter, warmth and comfort. There are some on the streets and it is God's grace that they survive the winter months. They know what it is to live by God's grace first hand.
Another thing which we take for granted is our health! When we are healthy, we have the strength to work hard, we have the strength to enjoy life doing all kinds of activities with loved ones. Without it, all the wealth in the world means nothing. It can not be bought but it is a gift from God just like life itself. It is a gift from God to get out of bed and do things without assistance. I confess that I take it for granted and don't consciously think about these things on a daily basis. There are so many who wake up and go to sleep in chronic pain so much that death seems a relief for them. So many who are struggling with physical problems that make being alive a heavy burden to bear.
Some who do have emotional problems like depression which suck the very life out of them. Burdened by guilt for one reason or another, or maybe isolated from those who love them, or whatever it may be. We have those who love us who are always there for us. We take them for granted sometimes or maybe even most of the time. When they are there with us, we take them for granted but when they are gone we regret not having talked to them more or shown our love more through our actions.
It is a great temptation for us to take credit for all the great things that happen in our lives. If I pass an exam, I am tempted to say it was because of the hard work and long hours that i put in and might even cherish the feeling that because of my effort, I deserved to pass. Yet God in His mercy helps me to understand during the studying and brings those things that I studied to my remembrance. It is His mercy that I even study what is coming in the exam. Have you ever put in so much effort and studied the wrong material or stuff which was not even on the test only to get that which you didn't study? I have, and I put long hours while at it. It is even God's mercy that I can put the right answer on the scantron even when I know that it is the answer. I don't know about you, but I have taken tests where I know the answer to a question that it was say C, but when I got my results back I put D, even though I know when I was shading in the answer I was sure I put C. I am using myself as an example just to show how we can do absolutely nothing, even the tasks which appear to be simple without God's helping us to do them. There has been times when I put in long hours and felt I understood the material and got to the test and blacked out remembering little of what i had read. It was because I trusted completely in myself and the "long hours" I put in and not in God who helps with the whole process; by helping me to read the material that will actually be on the test, by helping me to understand, to remember those things in the test, and to put the correct answers on the answer sheet.
It is tempting for us to attribute our successes to our personal effort and for us to take all the glory when God does something wonderful in our lives. Maybe you get promoted at work, start getting more money and everything is good. It is very tempting to say " I did it" when it is actually God's blessing. It is grace when God does something good in our lives. There are others who are deserving but might not get the same success. They are diligent, hard-workers and just as deserving but might never get the same opportunity. The health to work hard and impress enough to be promoted comes from God. To even be noticed when there are so many other employees who might be working just as hard and be deserving also comes from God.
I used studying as an example but you know how your life is. We leave home to go to work or school but there is no guarantee we will return home that night. It is a gift to come back home at the end of a long day and to see loved ones. Sometimes we complain about work and how monotonous it gets sometimes, which is true, but we ought to be grateful because there are thousands who are being laid off and have lost their jobs. Lost their homes, cars, even their families and health as a result of these things. So when we you have a job you don't particularly like, be grateful because it is paying for your gas, bills, even the house you might be living in and the food you eat for you and your family. To even have health enough to work is a gift, a real blessing. Some have stopped going to work because of health issues at the peak of their careers when everything is going right.
We ought to be grateful for even being able to wake up. God out of His mercy will be giving us a chance to get things right with Him. There are some who do not get that opportunity and do not wake up having gone to bed as usual with nothing out of the ordinary.
Our relationships might not be perfect. But let's be thankful that even though we might not always get along with those around us as perfectly as we would wish, at least we have those people in our lives. There are some who are lonely and have no family or friends, no one to turn to or to confide in. It is a gift and a blessing to have relationships. To have parents, siblings, church family, friends, and spouses. Imagine how life would be without anyone at all? That's how it is for some.
So I hope you and I, all of us, we can be more thankful and grateful for the good things God continues to do in our lives. Little things like bending over to tie shoe laces are a gift and blessing because not everyone you come across is able to do these things. To see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel, to move, to be alive, all these things are a great gift from God if we just recognize as it is written:
[28] For in him we live, and move, and have our being; Acts 17:28.
No matter how dire the situation, how grim the outlook, we should always be thankful. To be alive no matter how bad the situation is a blessing. It is an opportunity to get things right with Him. Even on a deathbed, in those last moments God gives the opportunity for us to reach out to Him and even at that moment He can heal a soul. Even at the last moment, those last breaths are a gift and can help to determine where one ends up. So it is something to be thankful for to know that even at the deathbed, God can give us a chance to be forgiven of our sins no matter how wretched the life was and to cleanse us and make us clean as He did the thief on the cross at his dying moments, if we ask Him to forgive us our sins and to cleanse of all righteousness and to believe that He has done just that.
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