Category: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thankful for Painful Experiences

If not for that heart break you may not have met the right person today. If not for that failure you may not have known what it means to have success. If not for that defeat you may not have known what it means to win a battle. If not for that struggle you may not have known what it means to have it easy. If not for that break up you may not have known what it means to be standing on your own two feet today. If not for that traumatic experience you may not have known what it means to put yourself in other people’s shoes. If not for that character you may not have known what it means to guard your heart. If not for that rejection you may not have known what it feels like to be accepted. If not for hunger you may not have known what it means to be full.

Every single one of your painful experiences are for good reasons; they occur in order to bring you to a state of awareness, to a state of maturity, to a state of humility, to a state of endurance and total surrender to God. None of them were meant to bring you down but every single one of them were intended to shape you and bring you up for God’s glory. None of them were meant for evil or to set you back but they were permitted by God in order to give you a platform for elevation. That painful experience is not meant for you to be a target but you were specifically chosen by God for that great big task. God allowed you to go through it in order to build up strength in you. God allowed you to go through it for you to fulfil purpose in life.

This too shall pass. Instead of you drowning in sorrow and despair as a result of this painful experience turn it into praise. The Bible says that you are blessed and happy when you go through trials for the sake of the gospel or for Christ’s sake for then your name is written in the book of life. That or those painful experience(s) is/are your stepping stones for your elevation network. Be thankful to God for choosing you for such a task. I know a lady who got an award simply for standing strong and still keeping faith having gone through emotional trauma on the loss of her husband and her sister within two weeks apart. Not saying that’s what its suppose to be but trying to encourage you that as unique as your experience is to you that is as precious and unique as you are to God. For God to have chosen you for such a great big task, that means he jas something bigger and better in your future. So thank God for that painful experience.

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Thanksgiving

Heartfelt Thanksgiving to God

I am thankful to the Lord who has given me the grace to see yet another day. I will rejoice with thanksgiving in my heart and with songs of praises in my mouth to the God of my salvation. He has shown me his mercy and his goodness has carried me through these many years. This is the day the Lord has made provisions for my needs; the sun to shine on path and the moon to brighten my night. His breath in my lungs to keep me alive till he calls me home. My protector and my shelter he keeps from all trouble. He fights my battles and gives me victory above all others.

When somebody is good to you, you almost certainly want to reciprocate that goodness. That’s what courtesy demands. That’s how to show good manners. With God’s mercy over your life and with the breath of God in your lungs, give him thanks. With his grace and his blessings over you each day, give him thanks. For the sun that rises and shines over your head, the moon that brightens your day, the provisions from above for each day, give him thanks. He endows you with his beauty and the grace from on high. Why don’t you give him thanks?

You might have thought that your alarm woke you up this morning but it was God who woke you up, give him thanks. Today you are in the land of the living and not in the land of the dead, give him thanks. You are able to use all or some of your sensory organs, be thankful to God. You have people to call friends, family, and acquaintances, thank God for them. People clamour around you, you are blessed, give thanks to God. Thank God for the visible and the invisible. Thank God for the small and the big things. Thank God for the past, the present and the future. Thank God for protection, provision, healing and many deliverances.

There was once a shepherd boy who became the king of Israel. before his kingly state, he was lowly and lonely. He was always pushed to the back of everything. Nobody wanted to hear his voice. His life was relegated to instructing and guiding the sheep. Though his voice was muffled by men he used it in praising God and he soon penned the book of psalms. Though he was pushed to the back of the crowd yet he praised God in his wilderness season and he soon became one of the greatest kings on earth. Kind David, the most influential person in his generation and in many generations after him changed his story with thanksgiving to God. No wonder he never stopped thanking God for his existence. He never stopped thanking God for his past and his present. Kind David never forgot where he came from, he never forgot his lowly days.

I have never had to work hard or extra hard for God’s goodness. Out of his unfailing love and tender mercies, God provides for me. He protects me. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name sake (Psalm 23). I have ridden on God’s goodness right from my mother’s womb. I could have died many years ago but I am alive and still standing, that’s God’s goodness. I do not deserve His goodness yet God gives it of his own will. I do not deserve God’s love yet he loves me unconditionally anyway, that’s his goodness. Many times I don’t deserve God’s goodness passed on to me through family, friends, well-wishers and acquaintances yet God keeps giving them to on a daily basis. His goodness and mercy follow me every day.

You might be in a lowly state like king David, praise him. And perhaps you are high up there, praise him also. Or may be you are like me who though undereserving of God’s love and goodness, he still showers me with them, praise him beyond measure. Appreciate God for who he is and what he has done for you. Appreciate him with psalms and cymbals, with songs and praises. Thank God in all things. The following Bible declarations will simply guide you into a place of thanksgiving for our God. Say them out loud and allow them to usher you into his presence with thanksgiving and into his court with praise.

Make a Declaration of Faith

1.
I give thanks to the LORD for he is good and his loving kindness is everlasting (1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 106:1)
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2.
I will give thanks to the LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all his wonderful deeds
(Psalm 9:1).
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3.
Thank you God for your unfailing love and your wonderful deeds to mankind, for you satisfy the thirsty and you fill the hungry with good things
(Psalm 107:8-9).
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4.
Thank you God for you are LORD and you the great God, the great King above all gods.
(Psalm 95:2-3).
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5.
Thank you God for giving me your grace in Christ Jesus. For in Christ I am enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge-
(1 Corinthians 1:4-5)
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6.
Thank you God for every good things you created
(1 Timothy 4:4-5)
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7.
Thank you God for all circumstances; for this is God’s will for me in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:18).

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