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In Christ, Mark
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Anyone who knows me will understand why I might have a fixation with acronyms. After all, twenty eight and a half years of serving in the Navy will expose you to more than a few.
Given this, I’ve been called by the Holy Spirit to write this devotion based on an acronym of the word “thanks”. Each letter of the word will offer a reason to have gratitude toward our Lord, not only during this holiday season but every day. Let’s get started with the letter “T” and move through every letter thereafter.
T = TRUSTWORTHINESS
Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy. 2 Samuel 7:28
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7
The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does. Psalm 145:13
How many people have let you down in your life when you trusted them?
I don’t know about you but I lost count a long time ago.
This is why it’s so critical to have a relationship with the One who never fails His children. Ever.
We find Samuel proclaiming the trustworthiness of our sovereign God, understanding that the Lord’s covenant is one that can be relied on. David, the master psalmist, is in agreement with Samuel because indeed, the Lord never breaks His promises and He has made many of them in the scriptures. One need only read their Bible to see that.
King David also talks of how we, the simple, can expect to gain wisdom when we choose to follow the Lord’s guidance and direction because both are grounded in trustworthiness. The Lord has never and will never lead His people astray when they rely on Him.
Finally, we read from David’s words that the Lord is faithful in all He does. Note that David doesn’t say that the Lord is faithful in most of the things He does. No, our Lord is faithful in ALL He does. We can always have faith and trust in Him because He and He alone is perfectly faithful and trustworthy.
H = HOPEFULNESS
God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish. Psalm 9:18
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Psalm 65:5
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Psalm 62:5
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25
Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3
As you can see, there are many scriptures that speak to the reassurance and hope we have in our Lord. In fact, hope is what buoys us up and keeps us afloat in a life where the world seems to want to drag us below the surface to drown in our circumstances.
For the afflicted, the scriptures assure us that their hope will never perish. This is because the Lord Himself will never perish. As long as we have the Lord, we have hope, a hope no one else can provide. When we’re in the midst of weakness, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that all we need to do is hope in the Lord so that our strength might be renewed. His hope alone can help the feeble soar on wings like eagles.
For those who are troubled in life, the scriptures offer assurance that through the Lord’s hope, their souls can find rest, peace, encouragement, and even joy. The scriptures breed perseverance within us as we read about the trustworthy promises of our God. Indeed, the Lord IS good to those who seek Him and place their hope in His hands.
And for us, struggling to make sense of our life and where it might be heading, the Lord speaks words of hope into our hearts and minds. Through the prophet Jeremiah, He promises that He knows the plans He has for us. All we need to do is trust Him and why wouldn’t we want to do that because He wants us to prosper, be free from harm, and have a hope for our future.
The primary instrument of that promised “future hope” was Jesus Christ, God’s only Son who He sent to give us a new birth into a living hope, one that assures all Christ-followers that they will overcome death and the grave when this life ends, joining God and Jesus forever. Through the hope found in Jesus, the final chapter of your life’s story has already been written and it’s the happiest ending ever. All you have to do is place your hope and trust in Him as the Savior, given to you by a loving, trustworthy God.
A = ABUNDANCE
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty—and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They tell of the power of Your awesome works—and I will proclaim Your great deeds. They celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness. Psalm 145:3-7
How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You. Psalm 31:19
God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Think about where we are today in the scope of the dawn of mankind. We are countless generations from the first couple, Adam and Eve. And yet, we still live and learn and love, and do so abundantly because of a Lord who provides.
God is good. We hear people proclaim it all the time here in the 21st century but it’s definitely not a modern day expression. Rather, it has been proclaimed for the ages as people experience first-hand the remarkable, amazing, copious goodness of God. Indeed, His power, majesty, and glory are always on display. All we need to do is open our eyes and take in the creation around us. Only an omnipotent Creator could craft the abundant nature of what we see and experience in our world.
Going back to the Psalms, we find David proclaiming that the Lord has good things stored up for those who revere and respect Him. The apostle Paul shares this sentiment asserting that God always looks out for the good of those who love Him, those called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Trust the Lord, place Your hope in Him, and an abundance of goodness will be yours. He will bless you plentifully so you will have all you need to abound in the works He will call you to do and that is definitely reason to give thanks.
N = NEWNESS
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them My new name. Revelation 5:11-12
I often think about my life before Jesus. It wasn’t pretty.
Like so many others, past and present, I thought I could captain my own vessel and navigate through life successfully. What I learned is the more I was holding onto my will and way, the more I was completely lousing things up. Something needed changing. I needed newness.
Enter Christ Jesus who brought the words of Paul to life in me, making me a new creation from the moment I asked Him into my life and accepted Him as my personal Savior. In a moment, the former me was in the past and I was now embarking on an exciting journey that I’m still on this very day, a journey that is not just for the now but forever. Once dead in my sin, I was now assured of life, resurrection life that would allow me to be with Jesus (and Father God) eternally. Jesus wrote on my a new name, one that would mark me as His, a future resident of the new Jerusalem that will come down from the new heavens and be found on the new earth when Christ returns.
Did I mention He makes all things new?
Let us give thanks for the newness we find in our Lord.
K = KNOWLEDGE
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7
The Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
Where would we be without the Bible and God’s inspired words within?
Well, we would be left to a life of ignorance and foolishness, a life void of wisdom, for starters.
I give thanks that I can learn something new and fresh, every time I read the scriptures, even from passages I may have read many times before. It’s amazingly awesome to me that the Lord finds brand new levels of understanding to bring me to. Maybe you can relate.
The Holy Word of the Lord is available to anyone who would want it. A person can choose to receive or reject it and those who turn away from it, do so because they lack any kind of respect or reverence for their Master and Maker. Therefore, knowledge never really gets started with them for only from the Lord’s mouth do we receive legitimate knowledge and wisdom.
We need to receive this offering with gratitude because it helps us bear good fruits in our life, a life that is worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in every way. And it’s this kind of life that leads us to a spirit of everlasting thanksgiving unto the Lord who imparts all we need to know about Him and the plan He has for each of us, a plan that leads to the final letter and its representative word.
S = SALVATION
Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the
cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Mankind has received no greater gift from God than His Son Jesus. Anything else
pales in comparison and even gifts we might mention as runner ups are all
connected to what we have because of Jesus. Every good and perfect thing is in
and of Him.
Indeed, God made a trustworthy promise when He so loved the world so much that He was willing to offer up Christ Jesus, His only Son, so no person would perish but rather have the opportunity to live forever. The fulfillment of that promise is what offers us newness in Jesus and an abundant hope that no one can take away. We have this knowledge because God provided it through the scriptures.
Yes, we end this T.H.A.N.K.S. acronym message with salvation, the promise of living forever through Jesus, because God always saves the best for last. I pray that we all put it at the top of our list of things to be grateful for, not just on Thanksgiving, but every day of every month or every year that the Lord provides in this life until He ushers us into the one to come.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone and blessings to you always!
In Christ,
Mark
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