Just Give Thanks - God Is As Close To Us As We Want Him To Be!

Life is sure full…of surprises, and blessings, and hardships, and tragedy, and glorious beauty! 

Give thanks…with a grateful heart!

This week, especially, we consider all that we have in our lives for which we can be thankful. 

And consider this: some of the most grateful and thankful people I have ever seen are those who don't have that much, compared with some who have so much. Thankfulness doesn't depend on how much you have, but simply on how thankful you are.

Do you believe in God? I sure do! Not just that there is a god somewhere out there, cold and impersonal. But He is near, as near as we want Him to be. Sometimes when it feels like God is far away, guess who likely moved? The book of James says quite succinctly - “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4.8) This seems to say that God Is As Close To Us As We Want Him To Be!

How else or why would we have any reason to be thankful otherwise, if there was no God? Whom would we thank? But just because God exists doesn't automatically bring Him into your life. We can trust Him, and learn from Him. We worship God because He is God. We can love God… 

“…because He first loved us.” (1 John 4.19) “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4.7-8)

Jesus spoke of God our Father as the One who cares for us all, and gives us what we need. 

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5.44-45)

“…for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6.8)

"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
"And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?'
"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 5.25-34)

Have a Happy And Blessed Thanksgiving - and may you be touched by God's love this week deeper than ever before!