In Everything Give Thanks

A grateful heart is a beautiful thing. Aren't you glad to have a day set aside in this country for the purpose of taking stock of and acknowledging our blessings? That isn't to say that we show gratitude on one day only. Having a grateful heart should be a way of life, but it's an important exercise as a nation to collectively acknowledge that our Creator has blessed us—blessed us incredibly! We are the recipients of great grace. As believers it is imperative that we be good stewards of that grace. So, in honor of Thanksgiving we wanted to give you two prayers of thanks—one prayer especially suited for a personal, meditative devotion and the other a unison or responsive reading for any Thanksgiving gathering. This Thanksgiving, we are a grateful people! Praise to the Father from whom ALL blessings flow!

A Thanksgiving Prayer

by Randy Vader

For love that knows no limit,
for grace we couldn’t earn,
for patience beyond measure,
for lessons yet to learn;
for joy in spite of sorrow,
for victory in loss,
for the plan that bought our pardon,
for the manger…for the cross;
for granting us life eternal,
for the promise of Your word,
for gifts of priceless treasure,
for the still small voice we’ve heard;
for family, friends and neighbors,
for loved ones one and all,
for the beauty of creation,
displaying the kaleidoscope of fall;
we bring You our Thanksgiving,
we offer You our praise,
we yield our aspirations,
to seek Your holy ways.
Thank you Heavenly Father
for all that You have done,
for the comfort of Your Spirit,
for the Savior, Christ, Your Son.
As we count our many blessings,
as we remember loved ones past,
we thank You for assurance
for Your peace that will surpass
the things we cannot fathom,
and will never understand,
we still choose to follow you Lord,
as You lead us by Your hand.

Amen.

A Thanksgiving Conversation with the Father

Dearest Father, who breathes life into us. Thank you! A whispering, shouting, sighing thanks for it all. Your very breath gave me life, and it's the same breath that sweeps away my offense, like so much mist burned away by sun! Could I wake, draw breath and not marvel at lungs and heart? Could I touch feet to floor and not marvel at muscle and tendon and ligament?

Could I sit at the table you spread, eat until I am full and not say thank you? Father, Your extravagant feast humbles. Content to eat crumbs, you offer me more and I am nourished heart and soul and body.

And this gratitude, the key to all the full life that you mean for me spills, and my heart sees, if only in fractured moments, that it is all enough. This grateful heart sees grace and I weep joy and laughter at your gift; appalling, delightful grace! I scoop it up in mounds and oceans and I wonder how I could ever have missed it, when it is everywhere! I see faithfulness in a friend and a lump forms in my throat. I see kindness in a stranger and I am undone. And it is all You, perfectly faithful, perfectly loving, perfectly steadfast. Sufficient grace supplied without cost.

And so, I dare to whisper, Savior. I dare to whisper, Friend, I dare to whisper, Abba. You did not leave me to myself! You ran to me and did not wait. You won me back and now I know, You are everything my heart needs. I rest in you and fears subside. Anxiety, hurt and anger flee. The ache of loss disappears into a grace song.

So, where else will I go? There is no safety away from you. Without your breath, I cannot fill my lungs. There is no nourishment away from your table. My deepest longing is that your grace will go deep, that it will go into marrow, that it will be what I breathe out to this desperate world. My deepest longing is that when I am pressed, grace will be the fragrance of my life.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy endures. It has no beginning. It has no ending. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for our sin showed His kindness. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for we have been redeemed.

Amen.

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