Live in Hope and Thankfulness - Abigail Skelton

Praise be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV

On a hot August day, my friend Julie and I wore heavy coats and bike helmets—not because we were biking, but because we decided to go spelunking in the lava tubes in Northern California’s Klamath Basin. More accurately, I had decided to go. 

Julie was visiting from Germany and was at the mercy of my adventurous tour. But when we found ourselves lost in an underground tunnel that involved crawling on our knees over lava rock, the fault was truly all mine.

Losing track of directions is one thing. I have plenty of experience with that. But being underground in pitch-black darkness with no sense of north or south is even more disconcerting. We talked aloud about what to do if our phone flashlights suddenly stopped working. Had that happened, we could’ve easily found ourselves on search and rescue lists. Fortunately, retracing one’s steps is wise, and we reemerged into the blindly bright high-desert landscape within no time.

On the surface, Julie and I marveled over how starkly different the two worlds were: above ground, where the air was warm and we could see for miles, and below ground, where our breath hung in the air and we couldn’t have seen our own noses in the darkness.

To God, I imagine our sinful lives look like overly ambitious explorers wandering in the cave and trying to find a way out. Personally, I seem to enjoy wandering in the darkness. It’s fun to see how far I can make it—before I trip and scuff my knees on volcanic rock or cherished sins, which will do far worse damage than any lava rock. 

Jesus, too, ventured down into the dark recesses of sin and showed us the way out—back to daylight, back to God.

Don't let stubbornness lead you to venture back underground. Instead, live in the hope and thankfulness of a life spent with Jesus.

Abigail Skelton is from beautiful Southern Oregon, where she grew up with an avid love for Jesus, chocolate, and writing. She has lived in three countries while involved in missionary work and frequently travels and studies foreign languages. You can connect with Abigail on her website: https://abigailskelton.com.

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This Is the Day - Kayla Leinbach

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 KJV

The first few notes of my alarm clock jarred me awake.

7:08 a.m. Another day to get through. I was exhausted and didn’t want to go anywhere. Life was too busy. Getting up and going to work or classes only weighed me down a little more each day.

My fingers hovered over the snooze button—my spirit unwilling and my flesh content with weakness.

“I hate Wednesdays,” I growled, flinging back the sheets and rolling off the bed.

Most people can relate. We have things to do and should do them for God’s glory. But a weight keeps us flattened on the ground—exhaustion, anxiety, depression, loneliness, or inexplicable things that annoy or discourage us.

On days like this, I blame the day itself—as if it’s the earth’s fault for rotating around the sun. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday—it doesn’t matter what our schedule is or what day it is. There’s always something about every day that we hate. Monday, because the weekend is over. Wednesday, because there’s still half the week left. Thursday, because it’s not Friday. I could continue.

As I whirl through the vicious cycle of racing time and crushing work, it’s easy to let myself fall into the trap of blaming the day for my problems. But God made each day and said they were good. Each day is a gift and another opportunity to serve and glorify Him. After all, He didn’t have to give us another day.

The Bible does not say, “We will rejoice if good things happen today.” We will rejoice because today is God’s perfect creation. When we take time to serve God and make the most of each day, He will bless us.

What are some ways you can thank God for the gift of today?

Tweetable: Are you thanking God for the gift of today? 

Kayla Leinbach is a college senior majoring in professional writing. She loves her dog, music, coffee, snow, and a cozy book on a rainy day. Her goal with writing is to bring glory to God and give a little enjoyment to anyone who reads it.

 

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Walk-on Wednesday - Living with a Thankful Spirit - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Walk-on Wednesday. By Hump Day, we are struggling, but we believe a good devotion can strengthen us to finish the week strong. 

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. Hebrews 12:28 NLT

I received his message as I sat down at my computer to write.

The message read simply, “I’ve been enjoying your Love Lines. Can you send me your number?” Ironically, I had just thought about my friend a week ago. Almost eight years had passed since we’d sat down and reminisced. He and I had been work associates right after graduating from high school—over three decades before—but our lives had taken us in different directions. Periodically, we’d spend some time catching up.

Excitedly, I sent him my number. Within five minutes, my phone rang. His voice sounded the same—his spirit just as chipper as I remember it always had been. For the next thirty minutes, we caught up on the last eight years. I was thankful I had a good friend. Although the miles separated us, I knew I could depend on him if I truly needed him.

First-century inhabitants also had reason to be thankful if they listened to and accepted the message of the early apostles. Their contemporaries may have killed Jesus and placed his body in a cold tomb, but God had raised him up and validated salvation for anyone who chose to believe. An eternal kingdom awaited them.

I’m not always as thankful as I should be. Sometimes it takes a call from an old acquaintance to remind me what I’ve had and still have. Among the many things I don’t have on earth that I might enjoy having, the eternal things ahead outweigh them all and should prompt me to give thanks in the present. I have a promise from an eternal God that he knows and will supply my needs and a further promise that he has an eternal home prepared for me to enjoy. By worshipping him in truth and spirit, I show my thankfulness for these two promises and many more he gives.

Are you demonstrating a thankful spirit?

Prayer: Father, we thank You for all that’s good and for Your love for us. 

Tweetable: Are you living with a thankful spirit? 

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Thanking God … Regardless - Solace from the Psalms - Martin Wiles

For thousands of years, people have found comfort in the Psalms. No matter what emotion you are experiencing or fight you're facing, the psalms have something important to say. For the next little while, Love Lines from God will feature, "Solace from the Psalms." We hope you enjoy. And please share them with a friend. 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 107:1 NLT

Growing up, “giving thanks” was normally associated with a meal blessing.

I appreciated food, but it never dawned on me how thankful I should be. Young children don’t usually pay attention to newscasts about famines and starving people. I was no different. Mom cooked, and it was more than enough.

Nor do I recall thanks making it into my prayers very often. These I associated with asking. Like any young boy, I had a list of wants and confused them with needs: new bicycle, money, records, a shotgun for hunting, fishing poles, etc.

Thankfulness is an essential part of worshipping God. The early Pilgrims of America were grateful for Squanto’s help and showed it by inviting their Indian neighbors to a harvest feast. The psalmist found a reason to thank God through reflecting on how God protected His people through their wilderness travels following exile in Egypt.

The psalmist invites us to thank God because God is good. God’s goodness isn’t determined by the nature of the circumstances. What we label “bad” is not necessarily viewed as such by God. Many restrictions placed on me by my parents I labeled bad, but they didn’t. They knew the desired result. What I considered awful was actually for my good. God functions similarly. He doesn’t initiate or allow anything into our life that isn’t good or can’t be used for our good.

Our reasons to thank God are innumerable. Among them is His goodness, His enduring love, and His redemptive power. Only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ completely satisfies our thirst and alleviates spiritual hunger pains. The greatest exodus is deliverance from sin’s slavery and is accomplished by accepting Christ’s gift of forgiveness.

Responses to life events lead to bitterness or thankfulness. Though God disciplines disobedience, He restores the repentant and rewards obedience. God’s power can transform bad times into blessings and set us on pathways of fruitfulness. Even His discipline is an expression of His goodness and reason to thank Him.

Tweetable: Are you thanking God ... regardless?

Prayer: Lord, lead us to thank You in all and for all circumstances.

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Thanking a Boss - Martin Wiles

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT

He is the most optimistic and thankful person I know.

Not having heard from Mike in a while, I texted him: “Hey Mike, just checking to see how you are. Are you still in Texas?”

Almost immediately my phone rang. A Texas number I wasn’t familiar with showed on the screen. I took a chance, and a familiar voice—one I’ve heard for the last thirty-eight years—said, “Marty, this is Mike.”

Mike and I met after high school when we both worked for the same company. I was a part’s man in the warehouse; Mike did quality control. A lay off terminated my position with the company, but Mike has stayed through name changes and layoffs.

Not long ago, a transfer brought him to a new plant in our area—two hours from his home. Prior to that, he drove three hours one way to work each day. 

Then the company sent him to Clute, Texas—eleven hundred miles from his home. The present stint will last ten more months. He has no idea where he’ll go next.

Mike didn’t sign on for this kind of life. He’s a homebody. When I commented on how tough his situation must be, his optimism and thankfulness bled through. “Well, the plant has been good to me. I try to look at it as doing my time for them.”

Mike always had down pat what Paul instructed believers to have: a thankful attitude. Me? Not so much. I tend to look at the dark side rather than the bright side. To complain about negative circumstances rather than be thankful in them.

And the little preposition in is important. In refers to location. Being thankful in all settings is radically different than being thankful for all circumstances. Being happy over a child’s death, a lost job, or bankruptcy is ludicrous.

But I can be thankful in those instances. When I remember God controls my situations, a different spin arises. Circumstances are powerless to make me miserable—just as no one can make me angry. I choose my response. Mike selected thankfulness.

God is good all the time—even when our environment makes His goodness difficult to observe. Remembering He is allows us to find thankfulness in all circumstances. 

Wherever God has placed you, be thankful.

Tweetable: Are you thankful in all circumstances?

Prayer: Father, help us to search for the bright side in all circumstances. 

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Thanking God Properly - Martin Wiles

He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them. Acts 3:8 NLT

November—and Thanksgiving particularly—is the month Americans choose to show their thankfulness. 

But honestly, there have been days, months, and years when expressing thankfulness was difficult.

The year my son left to live with his mother was a difficult year to be thankful. Nor did I feel thankful when I sent my daughter off to college. Empty nests are lonely. The year my father died was a difficult year to be grateful. As well as the year I spent a week in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer and spent more time in the doctor’s office than out of it.

But like many other things in life, I don’t tie thankfulness to my feelings. I thank God because it’s the proper thing to do. The lame beggar Peter healed recognized the same thing. 

When I examine situations closely enough, I find reasons to thank God even when it appears there are none. Praise is an appropriate method of thanking God. The lame beggar did after Peter healed him. If Christ does nothing more for me than what he has at Calvary, I have sufficient reason to praise him forever.

Giving is another way I demonstrate thankfulness. I’ve wandered through periods when money was tight, bills fell behind, and some services were even disconnected. Yet I still gave. God’s kingdom work is worth it, and he has promised to meet my needs when I do.

I also thank God with my time. I give of my time by worshipping with other believers, by using the spiritual gifts God has showered on me, by indulging in spiritual disciplines, and by loving my neighbor through acts of service.

How are you illustrating your thankfulness to God?

Prayer: Merciful God, guide us to demonstrate our thankfulness to You for all You’ve done for us and to do so every day. 

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Feast Day - Martin Wiles

Teach them 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. Deuteronomy 11:19 NLT

Some called it, “Founder’s Day;” others simply referred to it as “Feast Day.”

A church member extended an invitation for my wife and me to join them on their family property for “Feast Day.” Neither my wife nor I understood what she was talking about, but we were looking forward to a Sunday meal. This couple—along with a number of family members, lived on a piece of property purchased 70 years before by their traveling preacher ancestor. 

The family patriarch had loaded up his wife and children in a 25-foot trailer turned into a box and left Kentucky, unsure of where they would settle. At each church where he stopped to preach, he asked if there was any land available. Finally, in what is now Greenwood, South Carolina, he was directed to a tract of land that was for sale. 

Looking over the beauty of the land—and believing this was where God wanted him to settle, he drew up a contract between himself and God. If God would make the way for him to purchase the land, he and his family would gather once a year to celebrate God’s goodness. God did, and his family has gathered annually for 70 years to honor their ancestor’s contract . . . and feast.

The nation of Israel observed several feasts during the year to celebrate various historical events. These celebrations helped the people—along with their children and grandchildren, to remember God’s involvement in their lives. But there was one thing they were to do every day: teach their posterity the laws of God. 

Leaving behind a spiritual heritage won’t just happen. It requires effort. 

I must be vigilant in living for the Lord and teaching my children and grandchildren to do the same. While my descendants have the free will to choose or reject God, they are more likely to choose Him if they see my love for Him and observe how I incorporate that love into my daily affairs. Even if they choose to walk away from their heritage, the foundation has been laid through my example and by my teaching God’s commands to them.
  
Lead the way in helping your family feast on God’s Word.

Prayer: Father, may we live in such a way that we leave a spiritual heritage to our posterity.

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