It's Thanksgiving time. Psalm 119:65 mentions, "You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as You promised.". In Ps. 119: 9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word." The note on the word "word" says in Hebrew it means "promises". Side note: we can count on God and we should never count Him out in whatever circumstances we are facing. I digress. So we can be thankful for God's promises in His word. He is crazy in love with me! He has proven it. We should live like it's true. It should change us. It actually did change me. When I was living with the swine, away from the truth and fellowship with God, eating in the muck and mire, stinking to high heavens, down and out, I turned around and was shocked to discover that He was right there with me! Side note: It's time we realize His presence around us and in us. (Thinking about The Shack when Mack folded his hands and bowed his head at the table before supper while the Lord was sitting right next to him. "Who you prayin' to?") He is right here with us, never leaving us. Are we with Him though? I'm glad we have our bible, but does the bible have us? (Pastor Bill). Digress again. So, the experience I had was a revelation about His amazing love for me personally. That changed my life. I've been discovering the depths and truths of this awesome love ever since. "Come on, Dan, we all know God loves His people. We learn that in Kindergarten. We sing "Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so..."" Ah! There it is! Thank you, Lord, for your love letter to us. May we stay immersed in it. May we walk in it. May we truly live and act in it. May it become alive in us. May we love it a little more. One problem is that we move away from this truth that God loves us too quickly. We consider it mundane and a given. This is a mistake and a deception from the devil himself. If he can get us to move away from practicing our faith in this foundational principle, he has us on the run. Walking out our faith, applying the truths of the Lord, we stand on the solid foundation of the unchanging fact that He loves us. Everything hinges on that truth. If we move away from this, we are easy targets.
Now, He knows what we are going through. He knows the challenging duty and tasks He has called us to walk through. He knows how tough it is. I love 2 Thess 2:16-17, "May the Lord Jesus HImself and God our Father encourage your hearts for every good word and deed." (paraphrase). I don't know about you, but I need encouraged by the King Himself today. I believe I have that personal connection available to me personally, that He would personally speak into my heart with words of encouragement, just for me. It's special and it's personal. It's life changing. Even so, I am thankful on this Thanksgiving for all He has done for me. I hope to live only in the present with Him, not fretting over my past or worrying about my future. I'm with Him. He is with me. Now, let's take a walk.
