Lately I’ve taken it upon myself to go back through my old journals. The collection is currently comprised of the eleven that were worth keeping. I don’t really care how long it takes, but I’m guessing it may take a while. They are all very different – some are prettier than others, some are just raw, and some I might rather have burned… But regardless, as I look at each one, I see the exact same thing.
Having only ventured about ten pages into the first, the overwhelming theme in all of this is God’s unbelievable FAITHFULNESS. Overwhelming is an understatement, I’m sure. More and more, I am reminded of how much God has done for me, how much He has always provided. I love how He comes through for me! In every small detail and every monumental dilemma He has always spoken a word and given a solution. Within these pages are hundreds upon hundreds of prayers lifted up, and each one was met by a Shepherd who made my paths straight. Even in the times that seemed random and chaotic, He was always teaching something with eternal significance. Always healing, always making things new. And I wonder where I might be right now were it not for Jesus. The thought is terrifying. The more I shuffle through all this I experience Christ’s redemption all over again, as if it were all happening for the first time. It’s treasure. My heart can’t help but turn it back.
I think that through thanksgiving, you set yourself up to be doubly blessed. Once- by the way God is generously giving and enhancing your life in the present time. And twice- as you go back and recount it all. It’s the key to keeping your blessing, and it makes it even sweeter as time goes by. The blessing moves into something long-term and lasting. It becomes more powerful.
Recently I’ve learned a little bit about the Feast of Tabernacles. My cousins go to a Messianic Jewish church, and I find it all fascinating. Now, I am not going to pretend like I know very much about it, but from what I understand, it all ties back to this same idea. According to custom, every autumn, Jewish families create temporary houses in which they eat their meals, sleep, and live for a week. All this is to remind them of their ancestors who wandered around in the desert for forty years in these non-permanent structures. They recognize that, even in that, God provided for their need. The day the manna stopped coming to them was the day they entered into the Promised Land. As they celebrate, for an entire week, they recount in stories every single way that God has been FAITHFUL to their people, the Israelites, as well as specifically to their individual families, so that they never forget.
There’s something beautiful about remembering.
It’s important to claim these blessings, promises, and revelations over yourself. More important than we can understand. And not only for our own sake – also so that our future generations will receive even greater blessings than we do now, so that we can leave behind for them a rich spiritual inheritance. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” Deuteronomy 6:7 says to, “Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” How better to love and worship the Lord together than from a grateful, joyous heart?
I believe with everything in me that a grateful heart is key to experiencing an abundant life. One that not only fulfills, but stands out from among the rest of the world. Luke 6:45 says, “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” How attractive that is to heaven!
Realizing how needy and desperate we are for a Father who provides every good thing is the source of peace beyond understanding. I love that I am a daughter of the King who controls every resource I will ever need. And if it doesn’t exist, He can create it just for me. The thing that makes it all the more awesome is the simple awareness of how much I don’t deserve any of it.
Entitlement needs to die before I can ever experience blessing. On the other hand, gratitude attracts goodness, mercy, and all things miraculous. But it might take a week of storytelling. Remembering… until it has an effect.
In John 7, Jesus finds himself at a festival celebrating the faithfulness of God. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles after hearing men recount story after story, he stands and shouts, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” In the context, this promise is by far greater than every story of faithfulness and miracles previously spoken in those past six days.
It’s greater, too, than each victory, both large and small, that God has accomplished for me. I want to always speak of what my God has done in my life, what He has rescued me from, and what He protects me from that I’ll never even know about. I have found that a grateful spirit truly makes my joy complete. And if all other gifts fail, I will still be able to thank Him for Jesus.
