Today’s Readings:
Psalm 145-147
Isaiah 25:1-26:9
7 Sing out with songs of thanksgiving to the Lord!
Psalm 147:7-9
Let’s sing our praises with melodies overflowing!
8 He fills the sky with clouds, sending showers to water the earth
so that the grass springs up on the mountain fields
and the earth produces food for man.
9 All the birds and beasts who cry with hunger to him
are fed from his hands.
The Lord says,
Be grateful. Live a lifestyle of gratitude. This is the season of thanksgiving, but I Am calling you to an unceasing lifestyle of thanksgiving. Gratitude and honor should be marks of your life. Gratitude opens you up to My graces. Gratitude opens your heart and your mind to unexpected gifts in unlikely packages. Gratitude opens your eyes with expectation and fills your heart with hope.
Because it has become a discipline in your life to be thankful, you are expecting the work of My hands to be evident and ever arriving in your life. You are expecting to see My goodness. You are expecting to see My graces, My kindnesses, My provision and favor in your life.
25 Lord Yahweh, you are my glorious God!
Isaiah 25:1
I will exalt you and praise your name forever,
for you have done so many wonderful things.
Well-thought-out plans you formed in ages past;
you’ve been faithful and true to fulfill them all!
A lifestyle of thanksgiving trains your eyes to look for My gifts and etches a certainty in your heart and spirit that I Am here with you, and I Am here for you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. That is obvious when you are living a lifestyle of continual thanksgiving. Be grateful. It will change how you see the world around you. It will change how you see your own life. It will change how you see Me.
5 But those who hope in the Lord will be happy and pleased!
Psalm 146:5-8
Our help comes from the God of Jacob!
6 You keep all your promises.
You are the Creator of heaven’s glory,
earth’s grandeur, and the ocean’s greatness.
7 The oppressed get justice with you.
The hungry are satisfied with you.
Prisoners find their freedom with you.
8 You open the eyes of the blind,
and you fully restore those bent over with shame.
You love those who love and honor you.
A lifestyle of thanksgiving will inspire you to be one who brings gifts and blesses others, because you see My goodness overflowing in your own life. In thanksgiving your natural response will be to share My goodness, to share My provision, to share encouragement and to be like your Father in Heaven — a giver of great and unexpected gifts. Watch as your generosity cracks open the oil of My favor on your life.
3 Lord, you are great and worthy of the highest praise!
Psalm 145:3-7
For there is no end to the discovery
of the greatness that surrounds you.
4 Generation after generation will declare more of your greatness
and declare more of your glory.
5 Your magnificent splendor and the miracles of your majesty
are my constant meditation.
6 Your awe-inspiring acts of power have everyone talking!
I’m telling people everywhere about your excellent greatness!
7 Our hearts bubble over as we celebrate the fame
of your marvelous beauty, bringing bliss to our hearts.
We shout with ecstatic joy over your breakthrough for us.
This is a time to become well-practiced in the the disciplines of thanksgiving and generosity. They will change your heart, your outlook, your posture. They will lower your anxiety and fill your life with overflowing, uncontainable joy.
26 A day is coming when this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
Isaiah 26:1-4
“The city is a stronghold for us!
The Lord’s salvation, like inner and outer walls,
makes it secure.
2 Open the gates and let a righteous,
faith-filled people enter in.
3 Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those
whose imaginations are consumed with you;
they confidently trust in you.
4 Yes, trust in the Lord Yahweh forever and ever!
For Yah, the Lord God, is your Rock of Ages!
Allow My love to fill you. Thanksgiving is a key to this. Thanksgiving is a key to new doors of opportunity. Let thanksgiving be ever found on your lips. Let it be the meditation of your heart. If it is, depression will flee. Anxiety will flee, and vision and hope will light your eyes.
How to Respond
- Build a practice of thanksgiving in your life. Set alarms on your phone or use meal times or other multiple daily markers to begin to get in the habit of reflecting and thanking the Lord for His provision and gifts in your life. Take a harder look beyond the gifts you are accustomed to naming.
- Find people and organizations that you want to purpose to be generous to.
- Ask the Lord to open your heart and mind to be more generous.
- Live in a way that everyone around you knows that your life is one filled with gratitude and that you see the hand of the Lord clearly and actively operating in your life. It will challenge them to do the same.
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