Thanksgiving Challenge, Final Day!

Day #30: I'm thankful that I can't fully comprehend God.

When I chose the topic of God's attributes in response to my blogger friend's challenge to pick one topic for which to be thankful for throughout the month of December, I knew it was going to be difficult one. Although I've been a Christian for almost 30 years and even went to Bible college to study theology, my knowledge of God is so small! Sure enough, about nine days into the month, I was reduced to Googling "attributes of God" to come up with ideas of things to be thankful for! But as tempting as it might be to think I have God all figured out since I've come up with a whole thirty things about him, I have really only just scratched the surface. "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom" (Psalm 145:3). I'm reminded of the song, The Greatness of Our God, that we often sing in church.

And no words can say, or song convey all You are,
the greatness of our God
I'll spend my life to know
but I'm far from close to all You are,
the greatness of our God.

And no sky contains,
no doubt restrains all You are,
the Greatness of Our God
I'll spend my life to know 

and I'm far from close to all You are, 

the greatness of our God.

by Jason Ingram, Stuart Garrard, Ruben Morgan © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 29

Day #29: I'm thankful that God is sovereign.

"What do we mean by [the sovereignty of God]? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is "The Governor among the nations" (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the "Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible." 

--A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, chapter 1.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 27 & 28

Day #27: I'm thankful that God is my Savior.

John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, near the end of his life, was quoted as saying, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour."

I was saved as a small child. At the time, I knew that I was a sinner: I lied to my parents and was mean to my brother. But the older I get, the more I realize the sinfulness of my heart. Left to myself, I could never live the life of perfection required by God (Romans 3:23). I'm so glad God sent Jesus to live a perfect life and die a substitutionary death so that I can be saved.


Day #28: I'm thankful for God's grace.

Grace at its simplest is God's unmerited favor. I remember doing some street witnessing at the University of Wisconsin near where I went to Bible college. One girl's response after hearing the Gospel was, "Are you telling me that someone could commit murder and ask God to forgive them and they would still go to heaven?" She was incredulous. When we really stop and think about the wonder that is God's grace, it is startling! We don't deserve God's favor. There's nothing we could do that could earn it for us. And yet he freely gives it to us. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

Grace not only makes us right with God, it keeps us right. We don't have to earn right standing with God, we already have that because when God looks at us, he sees Christ (Romans 3:24; 8:1). And we can't be good Christians in our own power. The Apostle Paul recognized this: "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" (1 Corinthians 15:10). We need the grace of God working in us to conform us to the image of Christ. Rather than trying to do right, we should "keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). 

Realizing what God's grace has done and continues to do for me overwhelms me. I am filled with awe and moved to worship. I deserved punishment and death; I got freedom and life. I love the chorus that Chris Tomlin wrote for Amazing Grace.

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, EMI Music Publishing

Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 25 & 26

Day #25: I'm thankful God keeps the stars in place.

"'To whom will you compare me?

    Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing" (Isaiah 40:25-26).

I'm always losing things. In our home, it's my husband who can usually find something when I think I've looked everywhere! Whenever I read the above passage, I'm always glad I don't have the job of keeping track of all the stars! God knows each star's name, and he placed each one in space. And for thousands of years, he's kept them in place. He hasn't misplaced one yet!


Day #26: I'm thankful God created man in his image.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 24

Day #24: I'm thankful God does not change.

"'I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty" (Malachi 3:6-7).

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

People that worship false gods and idols often spend their time trying to appease the whims of a capricious deity. They don't know how their god will respond because he or she is not consistent. But our God is unchanging. We can read about him in the Old Testament and realize that he is the same God today. This should bring us comfort because we can trust that when God says something, he will not change his mind. He will fulfill his word.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 23

Day #23: I'm thankful that God is light.

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:5-7)

When the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, they were not afraid because they saw angels, they were afraid because "the glory of the Lord shone around them" (Luke 2:9). The glory (or weight or worth) of God is described as shining. I love this word picture. There is no darkness at all in God. He created light, he is the light, and he is the source of our light. And as we walk in his light we live in fellowship with God and others.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 22

 Day #22: I'm thankful that God didn't create us to live alone.

As John Donne said, "No man is an island." (Read the whole poem here. It's really good!) God created us to live in community with other believers. We need people to encourage us and spur us closer to God (1 Thessalonians 5:11). I'm so thankful for my husband, my community group, my friends, and my extended family that help me to become what God is making me to be.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 21

Day #21: I'm thankful that God is faithful when I am not.

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).

I'm so glad God's lovingkindness toward me is not dependent on my actions. I used to think that I needed to complete a whole checklist of good things to please God so he would love me. But I could never do enough. I felt guilty all the time. Then I came to realize that God's favor toward me was not based on what I did, but what Christ had already done. And no matter how much I fail God, he will never fail me. I can rest in his faithfulness.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 20

Day #20: I'm thankful God gives his peace.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

I love these verses. They are so comforting. Life can be hard sometimes--when your seemingly perfectly healthy baby ends up in the NICU or when you find out about unexpected bills you have no money to pay or when a loved one passes away or when something goes wrong at work and the fingers start pointing or when you've done everything you can to make things right, but you're still in conflict with someone. All of these situations and more in life make us anxious. 

Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 18 & 19

 Day #18: I'm thankful God is merciful.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Psalm 145:8). "The Lord’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed" (Lamentations 3:22).

Mercy is God's compassion on us who were miserable. The modern definition of mercy carries the implication of holding back a deserved punishment (which God did do for us), but the Biblical term, according to Unger's Bible Dictionary means "a form of love determined by the state or condition of its objects. Their state is one of suffering and need, while they may be unworthy or ill-deserving. Mercy is, at once the disposition of love respecting such, and the kindly ministry of love for their relief."

In other words, God saw our suffering and need and came to our rescue with love and grace even though we did not deserve it!



Day #19: I'm thankful God is my Shepherd.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 17

Day #17: I'm thankful God is self-existent.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:24-25).

As Americans, we pride ourselves on our independence. We applaud someone who "pulls himself up by his own bootstraps." We have greater respect for someone who earns his own money than for someone who inherits it. But that fact is, we really are more dependent than we realize. Without food, water, or oxygen, we cannot survive. We need God's daily mercies even to sustain life. God, however, needs no one. He sustains himself. If everything and everyone in the universe were suddenly to disappear, God would live on. Since we are dependent on God, it should bring us great comfort to know that our God is not dependent on others for his existence!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 16

Day #16: I'm thankful God is the Creator.

There's not much to add to that statement. It's pretty well summed up right there. God created everything in six days. And as I pondered that, I was mostly thinking about how beautiful our universe is: stars, planets, oceans, mountains, trees, flowers, animals. But then I thought about the fact that everything in his creation is fully functional as well. It's not only pretty, it all works like a well-oiled machine. God is not only an artist, creating the universe's amazing masterpieces, he's an engineer, perfectly designing its systems. Beauty and function!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 15

Day #15: I'm thankful that God speaks through his word.

"Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (Psalm 119:18).

It's so amazing that we have God's Word to light our way and show us where to go (Psalm 119:11), and that all of God's Word is profitable for our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Sure, certain sections of the Bible are hard to understand. That's why it's great to have tools such as commentaries and study Bibles to help in figuring out meaning; and we can't forget that God has promised to illuminate our minds so we can understand. (Of course, if we're coming up with new doctrine that no one has discovered in 200 years of church history, we should probably double-check that we heard God right!) The more I learn about God's Word, the more I realize that it is God's story, not mine. He didn't really give it to me to help me make my life work. He wants me to step into his story and be a part of what he's doing in my life and the lives of those around me. When I begin to grasp this, I do begin to see wonderful things in God's Word. Let's read expecting God to speak!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 14

Day #14: I'm thankful God is near when I call.

"The LORD is near to all who call on him. . ." (Psalm 145:18).

At ten months, my son still doesn't often sleep through the night. He normally wakes up once, usually in the wee hours of the morning. It doesn't really bother me when he does this because I know he's just hungry. He almost always eats and goes right back to sleep. And, as his mother, I can't bear the thought that my child would be awake in the dark crying out in hunger (or fear or pain) and have no one come to him.

The point of this post is not to pass judgement on anyone's parenting decisions, nor am I soliciting advice on how to help him sleep through the night. (I realize I may need to teach him that at some point, but for now I'm content with being there when he needs me.) I'm just comparing my son's call to me to my call to my Father. He is near when I call, so near that he can always hear me. Whether I'm calling out in helplessness, despair, anger, and fear or in praise, thanksgiving, joy, or love, he's right there to hear me. Just as I come running when I hear my son call, so God hears me when I call to him!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 13

Day #13: I'm thankful that God is infinitely wise.

When I was a child, my family used a lot of different methods for family devotions. My dad read through various parts of the Bible, used devotional books, and told Bible stories. My mom drew pictures, donned crazy costumes, and even created lovable characters such as Mordecai Mouse to teach Scriptural truth. But most of the time we read Proverbs. The book has 31 chapters to correspond to the days of the month and is practical and easy to understand, so we read a Proverb a day for most of my childhood.

I remember Proverbs 8 particularly well. Here, Wisdom personified speaks about her qualities. "The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. . . . I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind" (Proverbs 8:22-31). In my childish mind, I saw Wisdom as this little sprite with wings hovering near God as he created the world and laughing and clapping her hands in delight when she saw him make the animals and humans! 

Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 11 & 12

 Day #11: I'm thankful that what God most wants from me is for me to enjoy him.

Yesterday's sermon at Southside Fellowship was a continuation of a series on the core values of our church. Last week was Magnifying Grace; this week was Enjoying God. What follows is my summary of Matt's teaching. If you'd like to hear the original message, you can do that here.

When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he responded with "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:29). God's highest goal for us is to love him. But it's not a love that's characterized by simply obeying or serving or fearing. In human relationships, a spouse that does a bunch of stuff for the other but has no desire to be with that person and gets no joy from his or her presence would not be considered loving. It's the same with God. His ultimate goal for us is that we delight in who he is and in the relationship we share.

So what does that look like? Matt offered two simple thoughts: enjoying God means delighting in what he has made, and enjoying God means delighting in what he has done for us in Christ. God has made so many beautiful things for us to appreciate with all our senses. As we delight in seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching what he has made, we should be drawn to delight in the One who made them! It's okay to enjoy life! In fact, it brings God glory when we do because he is the one that gave us what we are enjoying. 

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 10

Day #10: I'm thankful that God is powerful.

The forces of nature are the most powerful things that we as humans can imagine. But we serve a God who not only is more powerful than nature, but who actually created and controls the forces of nature! It's hard to even wrap my human brain around the thought of that kind of power!

Psalm 29

Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings;
    honor the Lord for his glory and strength.

Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.
    Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.
    The God of glory thunders.
    The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is majestic.

The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars;
    the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf;
    he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord strikes
    with bolts of lightning.

The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake;
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks
    and strips the forests bare.
In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”

The Lord rules over the floodwaters.
    The Lord reigns as king forever.

The Lord gives his people strength.
    The Lord blesses them with peace.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 9

Day #9: I'm thankful that God has declared me righteous.

I tend to live with a lot of nagging guilt. I always feel like there's something I should be doing that I'm not. When I take time to relax, I feel lazy because I know that there's something more profitable I could be doing with my time! When I read books and blogs on child-rearing, I feel like I'm doing a bad job of mothering and am somehow not correctly fostering my son's spiritual, mental, and physical growth. (Yes, I realize he's only ten months old!) I worry a lot that I've done something to offend other people especially if they seem down or upset!

This is not how God intends me to live! He has set me free (Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:1)! And not only has he already paid for all my sins (1 Corinthians 15:3), he has transferred Christ's righteousness to my account. In God's eyes, I have been declared as righteous as Christ! "To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness" (Romans 4:5). Abraham believed God and "'it was credited to him as righteousness.' The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:22-25).

Of course, God did not save me so that I could live for myself and sin as much as I want, but he has freed me from guilt! I should live in freedom and "keep in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). The more I revel in what God has done for me, the less I will sink beneath the crushing weight of sin that is no longer on my shoulders. Christ has taken it away. May that truth set me free!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 8

 Day #8: I'm thankful that God sings!

It's so cool to me that God not only created music, but he also participates in it. Of course Jesus sang with his disciples (Matthew 26:30), but God the Father sings, too. "The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing" (Zechariah 3:17). I can't wait to get to Heaven and hear his voice! I imagine it will give me chills up and down my spine!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 7

 Day #7: I'm thankful that God is sovereign.

It's so comforting to be in relationship with a God who is in control of all things. Nothing surprises him. He never has an "Oh crap!" moment. He's not scrambling around in Heaven trying to figure out how to make everything all work out. He doesn't worry about how he's going to keep his promises. He's never afraid that he might not be able to fulfill his purposes.

The more I allow these truths to wash over me, the less worry and fear I have. For "his dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:34-35).