Dear family and friends: Happy Thanksgiving. I hope and pray the grace and peace of God overshadows your life! Below is a devotional with some impactful thoughts I recently ran across. Enjoy! Blessings and grace to you and your family this Thanksgiving.
"SCRIPTURE: Isn't everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God?
–1 Corinthians 4:7, The Message
MEDITATION:
Eugene Peterson’s interpretation of Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians here resonates with many of my recent thoughts about life. It really is all gifts. Wherever I look, throughout my day, God is providing gift after gift: beauty, family, friends, challenges, opportunities for reflection, restraint, thanksgiving, repentance, service, and more. Only when I see all these things as God’s gifts can I engage this life he’s given with real gratitude.
REFLECTION:
As we enter this time of Thanksgiving, let's reflect on what it would look like for us to live as though all of life is a gift from God.
What does it look like for me?
How does an awareness that every aspect of my life is a gift affect how I give—of my time, my money, my energy, my material possessions?
How does knowing everything is a gift affect where I direct my attention?
How can I attempt to reflect daily (maybe even every waking hour) on the gifts before me?
How can I experience them with God?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father: All you have given are gifts, but too often we are blind to see. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to truly live with the understanding that all we are and all we have are gifts from you."
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