Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
    as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

• Psalm 95:1-11

“No jingles to sing, no commercials to endure, no gifts to buy—just a day to be thankful. To look up and around and within and say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’
“LOOKING UP . . . thank You, Lord; for Your sovereign control over our circumstances … for Your strong ‘no’ when we need to hear it …
“LOOKING AROUND . . . thank You, Lord; … for close family ties, so affirming, so enjoyable, … for the embrace of a friend who really cares …
“LOOKING WITHIN . . . thank You, Lord; … for the gift of good health, a hidden treasure easily overlooked, … for broken dreams and lingering afflictions that humble us. …”

• Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch (Devotion for week 47, Friday)

I left a couple of pages of ideas for thanks out of the Swindoll devotion, but I hope you get the idea.

I was looking through old devotional books and I ran across this one.  It is obvious that Rev. Swindoll placed it in his book to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, since much of what precedes and follows is about that wonderful Thursday in November (for those in the USA).  But it is a devotional for the 47^th week on a Friday?  Near that day, but never on it, I suppose.

But I knew that Canada celebrates the day in October, as does Germany.  Liberia, Norfolk Island, Brazil, and the USA celebrate in November.  That makes sense, harvest time…  But Norfolk Island and Brazil are in the southern hemisphere, November is mid to late Spring, at least most of Brazil.

So that got me to thinking that everyday is a day we should give thanks to God, regardless of the month, regardless of the season of the year.  With Spring floods in recent years, giving thanks that you got your crop planted at the right time would be reason for thanks.  With our sovereign God, each breath is a reason for thanks.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.