Thanksgiving

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless His name!”

Thanksgiving is not something that we have invented. It is something that God has given us by His grace.

We have the privilege of thanksgiving because Psalm 100:5 says, “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”

We have thanksgiving because of God’s

Goodness

Love

Faithfulness

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Christmas was for years my favorite but over the past several years Thanksgiving has become my favorite.

Thanksgiving is a quiet time I can spend with Jesus and my family.

Psalm 131:1-2

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

There need to be times of being quiet in our lives. Jesus periodically took His disciples away from the pressures of ministry to spend time with Him so they could recharge.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is spending quiet moments with Jesus.

Thanksgiving is a reflective time.

James 1:23-24

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on where I am with Jesus.

It is a time for me to reflect on where I have been and where I am going. In these times of reflection, I look intently at myself and Jesus. I am not looking at my faith family or my wife or my children or my friends and Jesus. I am looking at and listening to what Jesus is saying to me and seeking His Spirit to understand how I need to respond.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is looking in the mirror and seeing what I really look like.

Thanksgiving is a time for expressing thanks to God.

There is not enough room for me to list all I have to be thankful for. I will list some.

I am thankful:

That Jesus has forgiven and saved me

That I have a wife that loves me and lets me be who I am

That my children love Jesus

That I pastor a church that wants to a Jesus’ church

That I live in a small town that doesn’t really have Black Friday

That I have an awesome view from my deck of the beauty of God’s creation

That I live in a town with hot springs to soak in

That I am loved and accepted by Jesus

I treasure a time to just rest and express my gratitude to God for who He is and all that He has done.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is expressing gratitude to God.

Thanksgiving is a time to hear from God.

Psalm 130:5

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.

I wait on God, not to do something, but to hear from Him.

Psalm 106:13

But they soon forgot His works; they do not wait for His counsel.

Waiting and listening for God is essential for us to know God and to know His will. When I know God and His will, I know how to live.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is hearing God and obeying Him.

The older I get, the more I understand that it is not about the “doing for God”; it is the “being in God” that He values. I am also learning the value of letting God do His work through me in His timing.

Jesus was never in rush but He never lagged behind. He was always where He was supposed to be and doing what He was supposed to do because He lived in the flow of the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving gives me the opportunity to reflect and adjust my life to live in the flow of God’s Spirit.

With Thanksgiving Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe