 Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. By now, dinner is reduced to a plateful of leftovers. Christmas decorations escape the attic. Black Friday deals cause us to lose our minds. (It always amazes me how we’re thankful for what we have and rush down Walmart aisles for what we don’t have on the same day). But for those who follow Christ, Thanksgiving is more than a yearly holiday. It’s a way of life.
The apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6-7 ESV). On this day after Thanksgiving, I want to study these two verses. May God open our eyes to His Word and stir our affections for Him.  I admire the apostle Paul for a number of reasons. One of them being his persistent prayer for the churches to whom he ministers. He makes it clear in his letters how thankful he is for the churches and how he prays for them often.
One of those churches is the church in Thessalonica. Allow me to share some verses with you from his two letters to this church.  I’m drawn to a couple of verses in Colossians this week.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6-7 ESV). I want to focus on three different parts of this scripture. First, “walk in him.” This makes sense. I mean, we should walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 ESV). This verse from Galatians falls shortly after the Fruits of the Spirit. In other words, when we “walk in him,” we sacrifice our fleshly desires and make room for the Holy Spirit.  I’m sitting here listening to a song that reminds me of how good God is.
Last summer, I fell in love with this song. I remember listening to “His Name” with my blue Beats as I glanced out the car window at Florida’s morning sky. My family and I left Clearwater Beach early in an attempt to make it to church that evening in North Carolina. I was really excited to visit this church. All went well until Savannah, Georgia. While traveling the middle lane of I-95 at a speed of 70 mph, a log came flying like a missile and busted through our windshield. Despite the shock, my dad kept control of the car. The log only penetrated further as he applied the brakes. With no other options, he brought the car to a stop on a bridge. After calling the police, we waited for nearly 30 minutes. Meanwhile, vehicles zipped past us . . . 70 mph on a bridge.  On November 27, 2014, I published a Thanksgiving blog called “Remember.” It’s now three Thanksgivings later, and I’m so thankful for God’s faithfulness. This week, I’d like to share my first blog with you:
In the book of Psalm it says, “Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given” (Psalm 105:5 NLT). David wrote this compelling verse of scripture with a heart of profound thanksgiving. He knew that in order to truly be thankful toward God, he had to remember what God had done in the past to bless him in the current. As David thought about all the wondrous blessings given to him and his ancestors, he found his Lord’s faithfulness to be ever so true. |