Thanksgiving For The Hungry Heart

When was the last time you woke up in the morning and thanked your Daddy God for…you? When you open your eyes, do you realize He kissed you awake? As you exhale and yawn, do you discern you’re inhaling His breath? Do you thank Him because He made you His marvelous masterpiece and has marvelous plans for you?

Maybe this Thanksgiving you need reminding that “thanks-giving” is actually “thanks-receiving,” and all that you have gratitude for is in direct relation to how you see God, how loved and accepted you believe you are and how much you believe He freely gives.

“I thank you God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking! It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord…every single moment You are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider, that You cherish me constantly in Your every thought! O God, Your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each morning, You’re still thinking of me.”  Psalm 139: 14, 17-18 TPT

Beloved, thanks-giving is not a discipline, it’s a posture of the heart. It comes from receiving your Lord’s Perfect Love and Acceptance of you. It comes from receiving His faithfulness and His devotion to you. Thanks-giving is actually an overflow from your relationship with Him as you freely (and undeservingly) receive what He paid to freely give you. It’s your response to His finished work. It’s a revelation of Jesus.

There are seven words in Hebrew for thanks or praise in the Old Testament. “Yadah” is one that is used often. The word it is derived from is “yad” which means hand. Like a child reaching out to his daddy to pick him up and embrace him, the posture of our heart that comes to our Daddy God ready to receive His embrace and blessings brings Him such delight. He wants to bless you more than you can understand your desire to be blessed.

When you are awed by the greatest expression of His love for you in giving up His Son for you, you are holding out the hands of your heart to take from Him, especially when you don’t deserve it and only because Jesus qualifies you for it. This is how you let God be God and this is how you glorify Him.

Yadah also has the meaning to cast down or shoot arrows. Giving thanks despite what you are going through is spiritual warfare. You shut down the weapons the enemy has forged against you when you keep your eyes on Jesus and thank Him you already have the victory. You can give thanks in all things because your Savior is working all things together for your good (1 Thessalonians, Romans 8:28).

Notice the Word says give thanks in all things not for all things. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. In Him is no darkness. He gives Life, Light and Love. Death, darkness, pain and affliction is from the enemy. But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He is the Life-Light that pierces the world’s darkness and yours (1 John 3:8, John 8:12).

No matter what you are going through, as you respond to Him in surrender and thankfulness He will fight your battles. Everything the power of sin has destroyed, Jesus Himself came to restore. Grace has replaced the law. Now His law is love. And everything you need is constantly being supplied to you because Jesus reversed your curse on the cross.

“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. BUT thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV – boldface mine

In the above verse the word thanks in the Greek is the word “charis” which is the word for GRACE! Child of God, out of HIS fullness, Jesus is forever supplying you grace after grace after grace! In that same verse, the tense of the verb gives implies He is giving you the victory now, constantly and continually. In other words, it is currently taking place. All you have to do is believe Him, receive it and thank Him for it!

Remember everything pertaining to abundant life is already yours by the blood of Jesus. But again, how do you access it? By believing and receiving. Faith is nothing more than trusting The Faithful One, the Giver. And it’s your trust in Him and His promises that make what you don’t currently see in the natural, your manifest reality. When you thank Him for it before you see it, you usher in your miracle.

So while you’re celebrating with friends or family this Thanksgiving, find your joy in “thanks-receiving” from the Lover of your soul. Thank God for Jesus…for in Him you live and move and have your very being (Acts 17:28).  Thank Him for the one in front of you, including you. Thank Him for the present moment and all that’s to come! Thank Him because nothing can ever separate you from His love. Thank Him because He is your victory. Thank Him for His peace that destroys chaos. Thank Him for His pursuit of you. Thank Him for His restoration of what’s been lost. He’s a good good Father!

Keep aligning with Truth and thanks-giving will be your natural response to His love. Know that I am thankful for you. And because He has placed you in my life, I bless you:

“May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2 AMPC

Happy Thanksgiving!

Resting In His Love,

Annalee Reyes