Thankful, Day Forty-Five

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100, NKJV

I missed a few days blogging, and that's okay. I'm not going to be religious about this. ;) But I could not end this day without giving thanks again for the goodness of God. He truly knows how to give good gifts to His children.

Can I just be honest here, and say that there have been recent days when I felt like I was stumbling around all alone in the dark? There have been days when I felt like God wasn't hearing my prayers, and even if He was, He wasn't answering me. There have been times when I could not detect one single move of God in my life, when it seemed like He wasn't doing anything in me or for me. But of course none of those things were true.

God always hears our prayers. And God always answers, even if He doesn't answer it our way. God is always moving, always working, even in the quiet times. And God never leaves us, nor forsakes us. I knew those things in my mind; but now I know them in my heart. Because that light at the end of the tunnel was NOT the train. I have come into the daylight, and it is bright and clear. I have come into the open, and looking back I can see what looked so bad to me was really the best time for God to work out some important things in my life.

Thank You God, for showing up in church today. You're always there, because Your Word says Your Spirit dwells within us, You inhabit the praises of Your people, and where two or three are gathered in Your Name, Jesus Christ is also there.

Thank You God, that You knew what we needed before we even knew that we needed it, and You sent the answers on their way before we even began to ask. You are our help in time of trouble, our rest when we are weary, our relief from the heavy burden. You are our comfort, our healer, our redeemer, our friend, our fortress, our shelter, our strong and might tower, the glory and the lifter of our heads. You always know what to say, and when to say it; You always know what to do and when to do it. God please keep meeting us in the moment of our need and proving Yourself faithful!

Thank You God that You still speak through Your people, through Your servants, through any who will hear your voice and heed it. You don't have to have a preacher in order to talk to us, and I'm always happy to get out of Your way and let you move, or to change my words to communicate Yours.

Thank You God for all that You are and all that You do! We love you!