Grace: Thanksgiving 2025

-By Grace

Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

Psalm 147:1

It's the season of Thanksgiving and I’ve been thinking about gratitude a lot. My previous church had a yearly tradition of writing Thanksgiving reflections - taking time away to think about the previous year and what God has done the past year. And despite not having that same dedicated time now, I’ve been trying to use my devotion times in November to remember how God has truly been faithful to me and my family all these years.

For my devotions, I recently read Deuteronomy 8, and wrote a reflection to model after Deuteronomy 8. Whenever I do this, it always leaves me so grateful for all the ways that God has led me through my wildernesses, humbling me, providing me with manna, and ultimately bringing me to His good land, even when I need to trek through forty years of wilderness to get there. 

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna,...that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you….For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills…a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-10

I wanted to share a short version of mine, which may seem vague without knowing what I’m talking about but each situation is very connected with very personal memories of certain people and events. I would really encourage you to write your own and I would love to read some of yours: 

And I shall remember the whole way that the Lord my God has led me all these 32 years of my life, letting me grow up in a Christian home, having everything I needed, and learning about God at a young age. He allowed me to learn the truths as a youth that he loves me so I could hold onto those truths when I was feeling sad and depressed, and come to see how much God loved me no matter what. Then He brought me to college where I learned more personally who I am, what my sin actually was, not just the bad things that I did, but a rebellion against Him, and how amazing it was that I received grace despite that fact. It was then where I learned the joys and pains of ministry and trying to love other people. Then He really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone like Abraham and Moses and help plant a church for a year, where I learned more about my sinfulness, but also that He can work mightily despite my flaws and failures, where people became Christian not because I was awesome but because God was still good and faithful and could work through me despite myself. It was this year that I learned that God could do immeasurably more than I asked or imagined because He is the one who could take five loaves and two fish and multiply them. For the many years after time and time again I experienced this to be true, that in the midst of my failures, my selfishness and self-centeredness, that He was still working and I still experienced someone I ministered to becoming Christian despite myself. 

He taught me how to love people, not because they were lovable or had a lot to offer, but because he loved them, and that I needed to be with them in their darkest moments. He taught me to love without holding back and loving others turned out to be such a hedge of protection for me as I was actually walking through one of the darkest valleys of my life during that time. God knew indeed what He was doing, that to love was to keep my eyes off myself and my issues, and that otherwise I would have drowned in my personal pit of despair. Instead He taught me to set my eyes on Him and cry out to Him because I needed Him to help and save me because He was the only one who could. Now this past year, I’m thankful as God has led me through many personal valleys, with changing churches and birth complications with Hailey being almost two months early. He's plugged me into a new church family, and has redeemed some of the brokenness and helplessness I felt last year. Praise be to God how He has led me all this way and I’m excited to see how He will continue to work this upcoming year!