Now that Thanksgiving is past…is thanksgiving done?

At our Church plant the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, we spent that day in devotional thought meditating on what we should be thankful for. In the week after and heading toward Christmas…I find it is very helpful to continue thinking what I am thankful about.

As we enter this season, let’s take a moment to be thankful for God’s Grace, learning from Paul and grabbing lessons for our life.

1. His Grace gives us Self-Acceptance. God designed each one of us, with our strengths and weaknesses. His grace will help us to accept and wait upon Him to change us. This does not justify sinful characteristics, but it should help us understand those things we do not like about ourselves, God allowed and desires to enable us to grow in the midst of them.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.       

My weaknesses can be His strength!

He has a plan for you, the way He made you. You are not an accident, God designed you!

2. His Grace Translates to us. Jesus desires to make us like Himself. Jesus gave up all so He could share it with us. Sadly, too many in the Church translate “riches” to mean financial situations. While God will help us with these issues, the riches He is referring to are Character issues.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

My genetics does not determine my character.

Never think that a deficiency in your life was something that surprised the Lord. He knows who He made and has a plan for you. It is never right to ignore genetics, BUT, God is able to overcome any issue that you were born with. We spend far too much time trying to figure out why something happened, instead of focusing on where to go from here. The Scriptures share countless stories of people born with many problems, God does not worry about the circumstance, He says, “Where do you and I go from here?” - Focus on what God wants, not why things are what they are!