Happy Thanksgiving! I pray you and your loved ones are doing well!
I know this has been a difficult year for many of you. It certainly has for me. Since Covid-19 shut the world down this past March, a lot has happened. It’s been over a year since we visited our incarcerated son and that’s the case for families of the incarcerated as visitations are closed. Then we moved my mother into our home under hospice care and she passed away peacefully in September. My step-dad continues to live with us as he needs full-time care at this phase in his life. This full-time caregiver role comes with its challenges, but God is faithful to see us through each day. The stress of it has taken a toll on both my husband’s and my health, but we trust God to see us through these challenges too!
I trust the Lord to see you through your difficulties too! We can place our confident hope in the Lord to do what His Word says He will do.
Whatever it is you’re walking through, I challenge you today to start giving God thanks in the midst of it. Not thanks for the bad things that are happening to you, but thanks that He is showing you a way through it.
“And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 TPT).
When we give God thanks “in the midst of everything,” even the unwelcome events in our lives, then we invite Him into our circumstances and in His presence things change.
So if you’re going through a difficult season this Thanksgiving season, start giving God thanks in the midst and watch what HE will do.
Here is a list of seven scriptural reasons to give God thanks in the midst of your present circumstances.
For God is good.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1 NLT).
“Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them” (Psalm 107:8 NLT).
For God’s faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords.
His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1-3 (NLT)
For God’s mercies never cease and are new every morning.
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:21-23 (NLT)
For God rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and we live in the Kingdom of His Son.
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins” (Colossians 1:10-14 NLT).
For victory over sin and death.
“But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT).
For wisdom and strength.
“I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength” (Daniel 2:23 NLT).
For our food.
“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted” (John 6:11 NLT).
“Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it” (Acts 27:35 NLT).
Your turn. What do you give thanks to God for today?
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Shonda learned to give thanks in the midst of trying circumstances when her son was sentenced to prison. She shares how she found hope and overcame shame.
Whatever circumstances you are in the midst of in this season, this message of hope will show you that God is greater than the trial.
Shonda includes more than 30 Scripture-based prayers are included in Appeal to the Courtroom of Heaven for you to find encouragement in the Word of God.
Shonda’s transparency and vulnerability points you to the source of HOPE for those who have lost hope in the midst of despair.
Click here to learn more about this book.
