Tag: give thanks

snapshots of thanks

Karla Lees

Giving thanks doesn’t have to sound melodious or look beautifully wrapped in order to be genuine, or appreciated.

God looks at the heart, and we should too.

One of my children had a teacher when in grade 2 who positively impacted me in this area.

I may have mentioned how she referred to each child as her favorite, and treated them as if they were as well. 

But the reason she was able to do so was because she was thankful.
She showed it in how she worked with kids. She loved to be there,  showing them she cared and how happy she was to spend the day with them.

Thankfulness speaks through our actions most times louder than our words.

The Psalms are filled with verses of thanks, which I used to think was despite all the woes and pleas for rescue & intervention.

I now know the thanks is there because the psalmists discovered the wondrous truth that God was with them through all they faced, and couldn’t help but give thanks for the revelation…

Even if the circumstances didn’t change for the better in the waiting.

When David was pleading with God to spare his first son with Bathesheba, He fervently fasted and worshipped.

When the child died and afterwards, he still continued to worship God.

For He knew the same God who had been with him facing the lions, Goliath, King Saul and the Philistines was still with him.

And David could still praise Him for who He is despite his loss.

Sometimes it is in the hard places where the deepest encounters with God and revelations from His Spirit can be found.

And I believe being thankful is key.

There was a widow in the New Testament who Jesus pointed out, who gave two small coins as an offering.  Those two coins  represented a good amount of her budget, and I suspect God highlighted her to show she gave out of her great thanks for His provision.

And I saw that same characteristic in my child’s grade 2 teacher.

That teacher impacted me not because her life was perfect, but because she lived out an attitude of gratitude for all the blessings she had, instead of focusing on what she was lacking.

We can do the same.

We have the Maker of Heaven & Earth.  We have God with us, alongside us and within us.

Knowing He is with us, forever, outweighs any lack we might be encountering in the temporary.

And because of His great love, grace and mercy which He extends to us, we can always have Him to be grateful for.

Thanksliving is living your life with a visible attitude of gratitude.

Nor because everything will always be going your way, but because the God over everything is guiding your way, from right beside you and will never stop doing so.

We can give Him thanks at all times, for He never fails to reveal His love for us, and He doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit!

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snapshots of thanks

Karla Lees

Giving thanks doesn’t have to sound melodious or look beautifully wrapped in order to be genuine, or appreciated.

God looks at the heart, and we should too.

One of my children had a teacher when in grade 2 who positively impacted me in this area.

I may have mentioned how she referred to each child as her favorite, and treated them as if they were as well. 

But the reason she was able to do so was because she was thankful.
She showed it in how she worked with kids. She loved to be there,  showing them she cared and how happy she was to spend the day with them.

Thankfulness speaks through our actions most times louder than our words.

The Psalms are filled with verses of thanks, which I used to think was despite all the woes and pleas for rescue & intervention.

I now know the thanks is there because the psalmists discovered the wondrous truth that God was with them through all they faced, and couldn’t help but give thanks for the revelation…

Even if the circumstances didn’t change for the better in the waiting.

When David was pleading with God to spare his first son with Bathesheba, He fervently fasted and worshipped.

When the child died and afterwards, he still continued to worship God.

For He knew the same God who had been with him facing the lions, Goliath, King Saul and the Philistines was still with him.

And David could still praise Him for who He is despite his loss.

Sometimes it is in the hard places where the deepest encounters with God and revelations from His Spirit can be found.

And I believe being thankful is key.

That teacher impacted me not because her life was perfect, but because she lived out an attitude of gratitude for all the blessings she had, instead of focusing on what she was lacking.

We can do the same.

We have the Maker of Heaven & Earth.  We have God with us, alongside us and within us.

Knowing He is with us, forever, outweighs any lack we might be encountering in the temporary.

And because of His great love, grace and mercy which He extends to us, we can always have Him to be grateful for.

Thanksliving is living your life with a visible attitude of gratitude.

Nor because everything will always be going your way, but because the God over everything is guiding your way, from right beside you and will never stop doing so.

We can give Him thanks at all times, for He never fails to reveal His love for us, and He doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit!

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Give Thanks

Karla Lees

Today, I give thanks.

Throughout my day, these are the prayers I will be praying in thanks to the Giver of all good things.

May Your Bride continue to give You thanks for all You are, and all You do for her each & every day.

I thank You Lord for Your…

LOVE. Poured out for all the world to see in an incomparably extravagant display of Your heart for us, Your Beloved.

FORGIVENESS. Wiping my slate clean as far as the east is from the west. 70×7. 24/7. What a gift!

GRACE. The fact You always welcome me with open arms humbles me and fills me with awed amazement.

MERCY. Oh how often I have need of this gift, and You never fail to extend it to receptive hearts!

FAMILY. The precious ones You have gifted me with from birth, and those treasures which arrived later.

COMMUNITY. The Body we believers belong to, and those smaller heart knit ones You have blessed me with.

REST. For each night You recharge us anew with energy. For each moment we spend resting with and in You.

DREAMS. How You show wisdom and ignite hope in our hearts through the dreams and visions You bless us with.

PRESENCE. How You never leave, forsake, abandon, forget or uninvite Your Beloved. You Are always with us!

YOUR WORD, which never fails to instruct, teach and guide us as Holy Spirit awakens us to the Truth it holds.

#Thanksgiving2015
#thankfullprayers
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give thanks hopeful rant

Karla Lees

This week, a weariness i rarely have experienced before has left me tired.

Not only physically.

I realized that I am tired of:

– false campaign promises (like c’mon, when a flyer tells me that the Liberals will cut child tax benefit from millionaires, and we stopped getting it $90,000+ before becoming millionaires, hullo?!!!!)

– companies continuing to call even when we tell them we are on the do not call list & will close our accounts if they keep calling

– when you can’t get a straight yes or no answer to your question, when all the proof is clearly there and has been for quite some time

–when people make a big deal out of a molehill, so much so what really matters become hidden in the process

On these kinda days, its always good to review your thankful list.

I am thankful for….

LIFE: 
Without it, I would be missing out on all the blessings I have!

WORDS:
Without His, I wouldn’t have come to be.
The ones He brings me to keep me, no matter what the season. The ones that spark hope & joy on the dreariest of days.
The ones which I sing to Him in thanks for those He songs over me.

COMMUNITY:
Without it, I wouldn’t be here.
Each hug, word of encouragement, free latte, ride to & from work, covering my shifts when I need time off, listening to me vent, praying for me

HOPE:
Without it, i wouldn’t want to be here. Because each new day He blesses me with is filled with a fresh clean slate!

Instead of fixing my thoughts & heart on wearies me, i choose to let what needs to go go, and cling to what adds life. 

To give Him thanks more than I whine.

To remind myself if the blessings of a life spent with & gifted from Him.

#hopefulrant
#givethanks

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Reason #5 to Give Thanks: Because You Can

Karla Lees

The last my top 5 reasons to give thanks ends with:

Because You Can (also known as Why Not?)  🙂

If you are alive, you have a reason to give thanks.

If you have anyone on earth or in heaven who loves you, you have a reason to give thanks.

If you can eat, breathe, sleep, sing, walk, talk, create, move, see, hear….

you have a reason to give thanks.

The Word is full of verses about why to give thanks, but here are my fave four as to why we can, besides the fact we are alive (as I outlined above):

1. Because you are made by His hands:

Oh yes, You shaped me first inside, then out; You formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—You’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, You know every bone in my body. You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, You watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before You; the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

Psalm 139:13-16

2. Because He is the Only God!

I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Psalm 7:17

3. Because He is not only good, but He loves us FOREVER!

Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Jeremiah 33:11

4. Because of who He IS, Holy, Mighty, Awesome, Just, True, Good….

We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was…

Revelation 11:17

Every day, we have a reason to thank God.

Every day, we can offer Him thanks, even on those days when almost everything seems to go downhill… 😉
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Reason #4 to Give Thanks: Because You Care

Karla Lees

Every day, all around you, are people.

People,who like you and I, need to know they are appreciated. That what they do for others (such as us) is helpful, needed, thoughtful, well done.

They need to hear that thanks.

But this isn’t that kind of thanks I am referring to today…

When someone has blessed us with kindness, grace, an extra hand, unexpected help or blessing…we should thank God for them. In doing so, we acknowledge we care about those around us.

More than just that we need to ask Him to bless them for being a blessing we are thankful for.

When we thank God for those who bless us in our lives, He appreciates the thanks!

And when those in our circle of family, friends, coworkers & acquaintances share their good news, show you care for them by joining their celebration & thank God for blessing them!

And somehow in these thanks transactions…
1. They are blessed by Him for being a blessing.
2. We are blessed through being thankful, more aware of God moving around us.
3. God is blessed and honored with our thanks, whether for what He had given us or someone we know.

As the saying goes, “Win win!”

The next time someone does something worth thanking them for, don’t just thank them in this world. Honor them by thanking God for them in the heavenlies, and invite more of His kingdom down to earth.

Giving thanks is one of the keys for more of His presence!

May the Lord reward you for your kindness… Ruth 1:8

…I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you…

Romans 1:8

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Reason #3 to Give Thanks: Because He Cares

Karla Lees

Today, I was ready for a day to myself. To worship, soak in the tub, do an online course and a bunch of writing.

God interrupted my plans with two kids unexpectedly home under foot, a phone prob, and updates to project work…not the day I had expected to have on my day off this week.

Yet somehow, as I intentionally made time to spend in the Word throughout the day as I could, I could sense God with me in a different way than usual.

By purposefully making space for Him to move in, He showed up with a calming peace I wasn’t expecting.

I am learning that His Presence with me all the time is awesome, but its more than just knowing I am not alone.

God thinks I am awesome, and continues to pour out the wild & passionate love of a fiance to me.

When my hubby and I were first dating, we spent our first summer apart. I was at sleepover camp up north, he was on a summer mission trip through the Maritimes. He wrote me every single day. (I wrote one long letter every week, coz I could only post once a week). Whether a post card, a mushy card, a cheesy card or a letter, he poured out his heart for me…and helped me fall even deeper in love despite the distance.

God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing. 

 ~ Rick Warren

God has done the same for us.
Not only did He die for us, He wrote the best love letter in history for us to catch His heart for each one of us.

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.  ~ Augustine

And that love, that amazingly astonishly awesome passionate breathtaking deep pure abandon He sends our way, is worth thanking Him for every moment of every day, and on into eternity!

 

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the LOVE of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great LOVE with which he LOVED us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ; by grace you have been saved…

Ephesians 2:4-5

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his LOVE; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast LOVE and faithfulness.

Psalm 86:15

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast LOVE with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…

Deuteronomy 7:9

Psalm 136 repeats the chorus after every line of thanks or praise for who God is: “His love endures forever!”

I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Jeremiah 29:11

Knowing the God of the universe loves ME? Back then, right now and for all eternity? Cares about me? Wants to bless me with good things? Is always with me?

Anytime now becomes the right time to give thanks!

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Reason #1 to Give Thanks: When its a Challenge

Karla Lees

There are several books and resources to help anyone out there wanting to become more grateful, including fellow Canadian excellent Ann Voskamp’s excellent 1000 Gifts.

If you are like me, you may have days where reading a book might be too intimidating given what’s going on in your life.

I have narrowed down my 5 main reasons to give thanks in any circumstance, by looking at the Word, and how I have been able to apply it to my life. I will be sharing one reason each day this week.

(To be honest, my day has been so long and full of the unexpected, I needed the reminder this week. Maybe you can relate!)

When Its a Challenge:

When things don’t go my way, I have learned to thank God in the midst of it.

Because if we were honest, if we always got everything we wanted right when we wanted it, life would become stale without a challenge to overcome.

Without a challenge, we can take for granted all we do have, and lose perspective.

Sometimes, all i can thank Him for is being with me in the situation, and that is always a good reason to give Him thanks.  Knowing he loves me and has good plans for me helps me know the challenge is not forever, His presence is!

 Thank God no matter what happens.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. Psalm 116:17

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  Philippians 4:6

Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when You walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure. Psalm 23:4

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