HappyThanksGiving 
"One of these, as he saw he was healed, returned, praising God inside a loud voice. He put themself at Jesus’ ft and thanked him — and that he would be a Samaritan." Luke 17:15-16 (NIV)
So, ’tis the growing season to become grateful. Everywhere you appear, individuals are speaking about being grateful, concentrating on expressing thankfulness as well as posting the reason why they’re grateful on social networking every single day.
But guess what happens? Being "grateful" doesn’t instantly mean we’re being thank-full. Being grateful for that good stuff is actually just being glad we’re taking advantage of individuals good stuff and appreciating God’s benefits here. When you are truly thank-full requires searching beyond our benefits, to the one that blesses. Sturdy being filled with gratitude for Christ, not only being filled with thank you for what He’s provided us with or done.
If a person would ask me right now to spontaneously list the items I’m grateful for, my list would most likely be much like yours — food, a house, clothes, family, jobs, transportation, buddies, health, etc. All these situations are huge benefits, and tremendous good reasons to be grateful, which I’m very grateful for.
However I started to question: Is appreciating individuals benefits that we can physically touch or see really developing a solid attitude of thank-full-liness? Will I still feel thank-full when existence is difficult?
How about whenever we feel we do not have almost anything to be grateful for from a year ago? How about individuals people who’re unemployed, lost homes, had children stray in the Lord, had marriages separate or received a frightening health diagnoses? How about individuals grieving losing someone they loved or battling with infertility?
You may can connect with a number of individuals situations or have another difficulty in existence, therefore, most likely the thought entered the mind that possibly case and not the year to feel grateful. But Thanksgiving isn’t nearly counting our benefits.
Thanksgiving Day initially began using the Pilgrims, several believers who in the middle of extreme difficulty, lack of family members and minimal food and supplies, still believed these were very fortunate. They made a decision to celebrate and thankfully for His benefits despite the fact that existence was difficult as well as their benefits were couple of.
When I considered this subject and also the Pilgrims’ unwavering thankfulness, I remembered the storyline present in Luke. In Luke 17:11-19, we read a tale in regards to a man whose heart was centered on Jesus, not only centered on his benefits. It’s the storyline of when Jesus had empathy, whim and elegance for ten lepers around the roadside, and healed every one of them … only one came back to express gratitude. Just one healed leper recognized that does not only was his body healed, but additionally his soul. Just one man am overwhelmed and filled with thankfulness, he required time to state thanks.
The leper surely still had plenty of problems in the existence to manage, but because of being thank-full, he heard Jesus provide him the finest blessing of, as he stated in Luke 17:19, "Rise and go your belief makes you well."
When I look at this story, I needed to ask myself some hard questions: Shall We Be Held grateful for which I actually do have and just what Jesus has been doing within my existence, or feeling unthankful or negative by what I do not have and just what Personally i think Jesus hasn’t accomplished for me yet? I couldn’t help but question if my belief was helping me come with an attitude of true gratitude within my heart, such as the Pilgrims and also the healed leper, despite the fact that all things in existence wasn’t when i wanted it.
There’ll always be things we might not feel grateful for, but we can nonetheless be thank-full by placing a different concentrate on what thankfulness is really. Let’s open the doorway for the hearts to become transformed once we focus this is not on just thanking God for the benefits, but thanking Him to be the one that blesses.
Lord, forgive me for focusing more about the negatives within my existence compared to positives. Appreciate Your blessing of affection, elegance, whim and eternal existence. Fill me together with your spirit this Thanksgiving in order to be thank-full. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Psalm 107:1, "Appreciate the LORD, for he’s good his passion endures forever." (NIV)
RELATED Sources:
Visit Tracie Miles’ blog today for additional encouragement and also to enter to win 1 of 2 beautiful Gratitude Journals!
Take a look at Tracie’s books, Stressed-Less Living as well as your Existence Still Counts, that will help you begin concentrating on God’s goodness and elegance inside your existence in next season.
REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Are you currently focusing more about the negatives of existence, rather from the positives?
Should you be thank-full and bring your gratitude for Christ beyond just counting your benefits, how might that new perspective improve your heart, mind and existence?
© 2015 by Tracie Miles. All legal rights reserved.
Resourse: http://proverbs31.org/devotions/devo/being-thank-full-goes-beyond-counting-your-benefits/
Uninvited Small Group Bible Study by Lysa TerKeurst – Session One
COMMENTS:
Molly Parker: Idk why, but I watch this video over and over again (about 4 times)…Thank you so much for sharing this! God bless you.
RHONDA DALE: Love this book! This video is just what I needed! I am sick of Satan spinning lies in my mind! I choose to LIVE LOVED!!!!
April Schrader: Just listening to your words brings tears to my eyes as if God's hand is reaching through them summoning the pain so pushed down inside of me. I was abandoned to foster care as a young girl and though God called me to Him ten years ago the scars of rejection still colour and affect many aspects of my life. A cycle of hopelessness and hurt continue to mess with me. May God use this study to bring healing to those deep places being stirred in me. I have always felt like my sense of rejection is unique to my experience, can God heal the pain of an orphan? I know He can, but will He is the question that I wrestle with.
Jasmyne Tiara Beauty: This is absolutely beautiful and I feel as if Jesus is speaking directly through Lysa and pouring into my soul. Lysa is so blessed for allowing Jesus to use her for His good works for which He planned long ago, the beauty of His Spirit is surely upon her and this message is exactly what I needed to hear.
Ginger Langer: This is a life changing Bible Study! Rejection steals the best of who I am by reminding me the worst that's been said to me! Thank you for sharing your heart and your story. God bless!
Debbie Morgan Claire: "He wants our hearts aligned with His.." thank you for this reminder.. great video on how to live loved through Jesus!
Ramona Whitaker: "rejection never has the final say". thank you so much…I so need to know this.
Marie Flores: I'm looking forward to this study. I appreciate your candidness and transparency, Lysa! God bless and heal you!❤️
forten559: This is beautiful…. I really needed this .
Desiree Montalvo-Holt: Thank you so much, I choose to LIVE LOVED! How powerful.
Melissa Brandt: Nice message. Good to hear!!
Kiya: I thought the source of my pain came from one person, but this has forced me to take a deeper look at my past.. although it originally came from my mom whom I thought didn't love me, it also came from the first guy I ever fell in love with (He left me out of the blue, and I never got closure. But because I loved him so much, I wanted to hurt myself to rid of the pain of rejection once again).. then I got married young to someone else hoping he would love me in ways others couldn't.. then I got divorced because he had an affair… the friends I made while in that 1st marriage no longer wanted anything to do with me because they choose sides…. now I'm in my current marriage with my now 12 yrs long husband… and its a 2nd marriage so along with it comes all the baggage from the past…. I get rejection from my step kids… I get rejection from their mother… I get rejection from their mother's family in the church… I get rejection from my some of my in laws whom had a good relationship with my step kid's mom… I get rejection from my mother and father in law because of the rumors my step son and sister in law passes about me… and I feel so alone… \n\nI will make it out of this season one day.. so pray for me too
Carol Burns: Amen, I'm following along with Uninvited and this has truly been a blessing with what I've gone through. Thank Lysa truly thank you Holy Spirit
Tere R: This is so beautiful! Thank you Lysa TerKeurst and Proverbs 31 Team!����
Jules J Múgoh: "Giving others the love you're craving." So relatable! \nPowerful!
denise harris: God is so awesome in how He always has the word I need , right when I need it.. Praise be to our Lord
martha black: this made my day. my question I have is Jesus followers sinned. yet he was teaching them good things. so did that make them sinless. Jesus teaching.
JoyfulDancer: Teaching itself does not make you sinless. Nobody is sinless. It is God's grace which saves us if we repent from our sin. It doesn't make us sinless either, but it makes us justified before God and it helps you to live a life with a minimum of sin.
martha black: Amen
ReviewMan: Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely\nhttp://tinyurl.com/zjkvsk3\nUninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely by Lysa TerKeurst is a sad reminder of the kind of life that the vast majority of us lived and are living. Fortunately, Uninvited does not end there. It tells us how we can “abdicate” from that state of being, free ourselves from the seemingly unbreakable shackles that have imprisoned us, and live a life that is connected not only to our fellow being but to God as well.\n\nI enjoyed the book and loved almost everything inside. Here are some hard-hitting quotes from the book, my selection of ten from hundreds: (1) Honesty isn’t trying to hurt me. It’s trying to heal me (2) Rejection steals the best of who I am by reinforcing the worst of what’s been said to me (3) Acceptance is like an antibiotic that prevents past rejections from turning into present-day infections. The need for belonging runs deep (4) If you want to know what’s really inside a person, listen carefully to the words she speaks (5) When a man is physically present but emotionally absent, a girl’s heart can feel quite hollow and helpless (6) The mind feasts on what it focuses on. What consumes my thinking will be the making or the breaking of my identity (7) The beliefs we hold should hold us up even when life feels like it’s falling apart (8) Live from the abundant pace that you are loved, and you won't find yourself begging others for scraps of love (9) There is something wonderfully sacred that happens when a girl chooses to realize that being set aside is actually God’s call for her to be set apart (10) People who care more about being right than ending right prove just how wrong they were all along.\n\nLysa TerKeurst has an undeniable gift for sharing her heart's struggles in ways that strengthen and equip the lives of others. I can't remember the last time I read a book with so many insights into human nature and even more gold nuggets of biblical truth. Don't miss this book–it will bless you more each time you read it!