REMEMBER THANKSGIVING

Hello Precious Family, Friends and Life Colleagues,

      How is everybody doing?

      So much happening in the news lately that I don't rightly know what or how to address things. Feel free to discuss such topics here though, if you like. We can pray about them together and make a real impact that way since prayer goes a long way in promoting amazing good. It's no secret how powerful prayer can really be ... especially when we back that prayer up with good works. It might be that one is worthless without the other. Ever think about that? Probably not. I know I haven't, but it makes sense. I mean, in reality there's really not a single person among us who doesn't pray. We all do. There's just no getting around this fact. Even if some should think that they don't pray and even say so, the truth is that they really do. They may not think so, but they do. We all do. Even in how we sort things out in our thoughts or how we communicate with one another. It's all prayer. It's just a matter of whether or not it's worshipful prayer or destructive prayer. Whether our prayers are encouraging and beneficial to the integrity and well-being of all involved or all concerned, or if they are merely self serving and angled toward the demise of another. This is what makes the difference. This is what reveals what's in the heart of a being making the prayer.

    When you're mulling things over trying to figure things out to see how you might come to the best possible conclusion ... it's prayer. When you can't see the forest for all the trees or all you can see is the muck through all the mire with not a shred of hope to grasp hold onto ... then what's your prayer reveal? Not so healthy or necessarily wise, huh? Sometimes it takes a great deal of searching and grasping to find even a shred of light. But as long as you're looking to find any hint of love or light in a given situation you are praying for the goodness to manifest. The same is true regarding any architect, fashion designer, builder, sculptor, writer, or any artist of any kind. We are all artists in our own individual way. Some are even master chefs while others are mere cooks or service workers in various departments of life, say, firefighters, doctors, nurses, pilots, scientists, actors, musicians, teachers and professors, etc.. There are so many categories to list here that I'm doing good to list the few that I am even aware of here. So many of us work behind the scenes and often go unrewarded with even a hint of thanks. However, many of us do receive thanks just not in the usual conventional ways, like hospitals, farmers, news reporters,, bed and furniture makers, publishers or IT folks in charge of making sure our electronics are up and running as smoothly as possible - tv folks, cell phone and computer folks, airplane pilot towers, and so on.  You get the idea. So much we take for granted not realizing or paying attention to all that goes into what we are privileged to have at our disposal at any given moment.

     We have so much to be grateful about yet we neglect to give thanks for it all because we take so much for granted. We have so much that we don't even keep in mind all that we have to be thankful for. It is imperative that we remember thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not meant to be a one day event in the course of a year. Thanksgiving was meant to be a lifestyle, a remembrance and acknowledgement of gratitude designed to be expressed for the benefit of all that we have as well as for the benefit of all concerned. Thanksgiving helps encourage us and gives us reminders of how wonderful we really do have it. On the surface that may not always be the case, I know. But I wonder how many miracles would take place if we simply gave way to a humble heart of gratitude. Instead of looking at what we don't have, at what's missing, and instead focusing our attention on God from Whom all blessings flow and thanking Him for creating us in the first place, and that for His glory, honor, power, praise and majesty ... I wonder how much things would change for the better. Might it be that even the deserts might become a wellspring of life? Might it be that all death and darkness would flee away? Might it be that poverty would lose its place in our lives, in our world? Might it even be that we would somehow experience Heaven on earth and all war and fighting would cease to exist? Such notions might seem elementary and simplistic as from a child grotesquely innocent, however, such notions I believe were meant to be considered and even acted on. How is it God commanded us to live anyway? "Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7).

    More than five years ago I was forced into some extremely unpleasant circumstances and severely uncooperative situations and nearly two years ago the evil that saturated those subsequent turbulent years led up to something that even more strenuously tested my faith. Ironically, what occurred nearly two years this coming June proved to be a pivotal turning point in my level of maturity despite all that I was being put through by certain individual who were emphatic about displacing me from a life that I had believed God was instrumental in creating and had dedicated to Him. It was sorely difficult and the people involved were not at all welcoming nor honest concerning my presence in it. However, God is my Vindicator. He is The Righteous Judge in this matter and I trust the power of His omnipotent goodness to work things out for the good of all concerned.... especially since I prayed concerning the matter regarding my enemies having a dramatic encounter with Christ Himself. You can never go wrong praying this way, not when you are seeking God's glory. Is the situation healed now? By the Blood of The Holy Lamb of God and by the power of His Word and according to His Will it is. God will always send His Word in accordance with His Will, which is always good and which will only produce that which is good, right and beneficial to His glory, honor, power, praise and majesty. Sometimes it seems like life has given some a raw deal, but it might be that those with the hardest lives might be the ones with the greatest testimony in the end. It might be that they are the ones who are especially chosen by God, given a special anointing, a special calling, and are more powerful than they really know. But that's really the point, isn't it? The devil will do anything to keep us from realizing who we are in Christ, to Whom we really belong, and what we really have going for us and how much we really have backing us. He will do anything to keep us from realizing the Truth that will and does set us free. He knows but does not want for us to know. Thankfully, God also knows and God will make sure we know in the best possible way for us to know. He will make sure that we are not alone in our plight to suffer all by ourselves or without a way of escape. God is in with us to help us win it for His glory. And that makes all the difference. We are not in it alone. God is in it with us. God is with us because He does very much love us. God is our victory in anything we endure. God is our victory in anything we face. God is The Truth we need in any given situation, condition or relationship.

     There is more I would like to say, more that is worthy for my continuing on. However it might be more wise to save that conversation for a later time.

     God bless you ... and you can't go wrong when it is always wise to give thanks. So always remember thanksgiving. Amen.

(c) 2014; Terri Spahr, aka (Prayer Writer Terri)