Thank You, Father.

Help me thank you. Help me live the life that thanks you. Help me find how to live the life that fully embodies gratitude. I know that I am not living now in the way that most expresses the meaning of what you have done for me.

You have given me gifts and talents that are irrevocable. You did it for me at the same time that you did it for you. I am not expressing those gifts. Forgive me and help me to thank you with the life you put in me.

Yes. In some ways I am living that way. Write now I am. I do not discount it. There is just so much more that you are worthy of.

There is no limit to what you are worthy of.

Gratitude Grows with Gratitude

Gratitude grows with gratitude.

It is good to remember a gift. It is better to remember and express thanksgiving. The gates of grace open wide.

How the nations do rage. There was never just one moment of refusing to say thank you. Longstanding patterns of habit. Cultural disinclination toward gratitude expressed to God. Habits of thanking the wrong god. Habits of thanking, congratulating self. Habits of uttering acknowledgement of a god as the source, without any personal knowledge of the truth, making the utterance a rut. So habits grow with habitual steps, digging the rut ever deeper.

After a while, even thinking about gratitude, therefore thinking about gifts to be grateful for,brings the life of God. Or brings me to the spout where the Glory comes out. Walking in pursuit of living water and gratitude for it brings life. Seeing where life is touching darkness brings vision for restoration.

My God, you are good!

I love how He loves me

This life lived resting (or meaning to) in the Grace of God is so practical.
Need what only God can supply.
Go to God.
Say hello.
Get a hug.
Tell Him what it is that only He can supply and that you need.
Wait a bit.
Be supplied.
Recognize the supply.
Give thanks.
Repeat.

I ached tonight with one of those special aches that are hardwired, part of how He made us like Himself. Since He knows all of those aches, because He aches like that, He knows how to not ache...
And how to make me not ache. So when I went to get a hug, that is what he did.

He does these things in different ways every time. Like Jesus constantly doing different miracles. Like all of the different ways of healing blindness.

I wish all training had hugs.

Father, You make everything glorious. Thank you.

Good Morning

I delight in You, my God and King. All that I am and have is from you and directed unto you in praise, honor and glory. I am entirely adrift and lost without you. But I am not without you. You have placed me in Your presence, the intimate center of Your delightful Love. In Your presence is fullness of joy. Here with You, Christ Jesus, I find my purpose and the fulfillment of it. There is great sufficiency in You and I am satisfied and at rest in Your embrace. Thank You for the Blood poured out for the redemption of this glorious Body. Thank You for Your abiding Spiritual weight in our lives. Teach us some more today, revealing your Love in and through us. Convict us and admonish us for being Love misers.

I am really having trouble writing tonight.

I am really having trouble writing tonight.

This is the first week of a new work year. Maybe I am running harder at it than I am aware of in the midst of it. Ready to sleep when I get home.

Noisy. Yup. Got noisy again. Help me, Daddy, with the noisy. Oh...You've got me.
I am okay. Sorry. I forgot. Thanks so much.

Kiss my brother tonight, Father. Hug my sister tonight, Father. Help me settle. I need to hear.

Plenty

Plenty.

Reminds me of what Zig said about always having enough to eat when he was growing up. He said he always knew he had enough, because his folks said, "You've had enough."

Yes, there is poverty and hunger like that now. My guess, though, is that there are a lot more poorly nourished in abundance than in poverty.

The best thing about writing every day is that I get inspired every day. Meaning that the Spirit of God gives me something to write about. I get enough for the post. Sometimes there is more than enough, but mostly just plenty.

This inspiration is like manna. There was always plenty of manna. Except for the sabbath manna, there was no extra. And the sabbath manna was not extra.

Anyway, there is plenty. Knowing what satisfied feels like helps. The farmer who was going to build bigger barns had not tasted satisfaction.

Maybe now I understand why I need to write about plenty. When I say, "There is plenty." do you say, "No, there is not?" Are you experiencing plenty? Are you tasting satisfaction on a regular basis? If the answer is no, run a line down the middle of a sheet of paper and run an inventory of what you have on the left and what you lack on the right. Then tick off the things on the left that you are giving thanks for. Then tick off the things on the right that you really expect, and might even be giving thanks for in advance. Then thank God for the miracle working Blood of Jesus. Now if the exercise still leaves you lacking for satisfaction and believing you have poverty instead of plenty, then write me and we will see where we need to go from here.

There is plenty. I am learning that there is great plenty in not having to store up in anticipation of the day when God breaks His Word.

Father, thank You that You are the definition of Faithful.

Satisfaction and Gratitude

The obverse of the coin is gratitude. Our Heavenly Father is the source of perfect satisfaction, in Christ and by His Holy Spirit. He says that His will is our gratitude, our giving thanks in all things.

Receiving the manifest Kingdom and giving Him thanks for it are tandem and inseparable. There is nothing like breathing in Love and breathing out thanksgiving. In fact, there is nothing better, and there is no substitute. It is spiritual respiration. Many other things are excellent and characteristic of the Kingdom of God. But nothing gets done without breathing in the Kingdom and breathing out thanksgiving.

Hallel u jah