Giving of Thanks

Good afternoon and welcome back to Jules’ Blog. I hope you are doing well and if not I pray that the Father would send His spirit to help you in your weakness.

Yesterday was thanksgiving as many of you know. Something that God put on my mind was “what are you thankful for?” Really thankful for, not the typical answers, “family, friends, food”. He challenged me to think outside the narrow box that can be my mind at times. As I started to ponder on this question, my head began to flood with so many things to be thankful for. The typical answers came and went, but the more time I spent thinking on these things, the deeper my answers became. Being thankful for family turned into being thankful that God created people for the sake of fellowship with Him. Friends turned into being thankful for each encounter I have ever had, that God was present in those times and that He brought those people into my life to work in ways I’m unaware of. Food turned into being thankful that God provides all things, great and small. As these thoughts and many more were stirring in my mind, the minute things became even smaller in my eyes. I can thank God for that! The 364 other days of the year, I am likely to forget everything I have to be thankful for. I’m aware that is the sin of being ungrateful. I pray that God would poke and prod in my heart to mold me to be more like Him. During those days that I forget to be thankful, I start to become selfish and glorify myself for my accomplishments. Pride is a very real struggle for me. Getting lost in my success seems to be a frequent area of failure. A lot of my life, degrading phrases were thrown into my head, things that made me feel less than worthy of attention or even love for that matter. Hence why getting lost in glorifying myself is so easy, because I wasn’t feeling loved. This is another area of my life God continues to grow me in. Pushing me to seek Him for love and relying on Him for feeling worthy. It is a process, let me say that right now. Loving myself and feeling worthy on my own is not easy. Even at times where my relationship with Christ is at an all time high, a small twinge of guilt or regret can throw me back into feeling worthless. Like I said earlier, it’s a process. Who knows, it might be a struggle for years. 

From here I would like to encourage you all to seek God, who is greater than all things for comfort, love and feeling worthy. Next I  want to challenge you all to think of 5 things you are thankful for every day, share them with a friend or family member-you could even ask them to hold you accountable. Thank you again for joining me in this journey, and I hope that you are willing to stick by me through this time!