Hello Friend!🌻I love this time of year, don’t you?

Many of us are pausing to count our blessings as we gather cherished recipes for the Holidays. I asked God to help me put together a recipe for a thankful heart, with powerful ingredients that will nourish, edify and sustain us in the new year. And He gave me the following recipe with ingredients using each letter from the word Thankful. I pray this blesses you today … 

Recipe For A Thankful Heart

T – Taste and see that the LORD is good (Ps 34:8)

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Ps 34:8 NIV

Have you tasted the goodness of the Lord for yourself? God invites us to come to His table daily to lavishly feast on His presence and His Word, quieting our souls to seek His voice for ourselves. With such an extravagant invitation from our Maker, why be satisfied with merely snacking on devotionals each day? These are valuable and certainly encourage us but they aren’t meant to sustain us as they are shared experiences from someone else’s personal encounters with the Lord. In Jer 29:13, God promises we will find Him if we seek Him with our whole hearts. Let’s begin here to cultivate a heart that is SO thankful, there will be no room for the grumblies to remain.

H – Help Others (Phil 2:4)

Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Phil 2:4 NLT

When we go through tough seasons, it can be tempting to isolate ourselves. But this can lead to more grumbling than thankfulness because it’s kinda hard to learn something new and grow up in our faith when the only group we seek fellowship with or counsel from is me, myself and I. When we help to ease someone else’s burdens, it can give us a new perspective on something we are going through ourselves. And Proverbs 11:24-25 reminds us that those who withhold will lose everything and come to poverty but those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. 

A – Abide in Jesus (John 15:4)

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4 ESV

A branch, in and of itself, has no life within it. For it to thrive, the branch needs to remain attached to the living vine so the nourishing sap can flow through its veins to produce tendrils, leaves and beautiful fruit. Our spiritual lives cannot thrive nor be fruitful when we become disconnected from Christ. True life flows from His veins into every branch that abides in Him so it can grow and produce fruit for His glory.

Let’s be thankful little branches abiding with our Jesus today …

N – Nourish our souls. (John 6:35, John 4:10, Isaiah 55:1-2)

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 NIV

Life is just plain hard at times but it can feel 10 times worse when we are tired and running on empty. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He lovingly let her know that He Himself was her Living Water (John 4:10). And in Isaiah 55:1, God invites all who are thirsty to come to the waters. Then in the next verse, He asks: “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare” (Isa 55:2).

Let’s pause to drink deeply from His cup today …

K – Keep the Faith. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Tim 4:7 NIV

This world is becoming harder to live in as we see signs of the end times drawing near. It is vital that we remain in our lanes to run our races well and faithfully steward the gifts He’s given us, for His Kingdom and His glory. Fighting the good fight of faith should be the only kind of ‘fighting’ that we allow our hearts, minds and emotions to engage in. Our circumstances may be unsettling at the moment but keeping an eternal perspective will help us remain hopeful and thankful for God’s promises and imminent return. 

F – Fix our Eyes on the Lord –  (Ps 16:8)

“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Ps 16:8 ESV

When our minds ponder, on repeat, all that is going wrong in our lives, our problems can seem to grow exponentially bigger before us until they become this gigantic boulder clouding our vision, paralyzing our courage and shaking us to our core. But if we capture those spiraling thoughts for Christ and practice intentionally setting the Lord always before us, He will either roll those proverbial boulders away or carry them for us and clear the path for us so we can keep running our races of faith. Even if our circumstances haven’t changed yet, we can unapologetically abide in His peace and joy and focus on His beauty. 

U – Unity (Ephesians 4:3)

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Eph 4:3 NIV

Every time I meet up with my friend Jo-Anne, she joyfully tells me how she thanks God for me and prays for me and my hubby everyday. In many of Paul’s letters in the New testament, he greeted Believers in this same way … thanking God for them and joyfully praying for them. Paul tells us in Phil 2:1-4 that unity in Christ among Believers made his joy complete. Jesus even tells us in Matthew 5:23-24 to leave our gifts at the altar and go be reconciled with a brother or sister first, if needed. Living in discord with other Believers will quench the Holy Spirit within us and block any growth in the Lord. In our efforts to cultivate a thankful heart, unity with other Believers is a priority.

L – Lift Up Our Hands (Psalm 63:2-5)

“Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” Ps 63:3-5 NIV

David didn’t have an easy life but deep down in his soul, his delight for the Lord and His goodness overshadowed not just his circumstances, but his very life itself. I want to be so enamored by the LORD that His intoxicating love becomes enough for me and makes everything else in my life fade in comparison. In this sweet passage, we see that living a worshipful life with God brings us the blessings of a rich, fat and fully satisfied soul. A fully satisfied soul is a thankful soul, amen? And a thankful soul is one with compulsory praise that can’t help but pour out of sweet lips because there just ain’t no time for complaining. 

Happy Thanksgiving Friends …

Hugs and Blessings …

Recipe For A Thankful Heart @freshgracefortoday.com

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