Weekly Devotion

Let go and let God. Haven't we all heard that statement a number of times? I have heard it so often that it has lost its impact for me. It becomes one of those mundane things you hear. For me it became a cliché.

But I heard it loud and clear again this week. I heard it in my spirit. Let go and let God. And I want you to hear it this week too. What does it practically mean to let go and to let God? Does it mean we must look the other way and pretend that nothing was wrong? Should we hide our face in the ground like an ostrich and pretend that everything is okay? Should we sit back and expect things to fall into our laps? Should we stop doing our part and just trust that all will fall into place?

I think through the questions I asked you probably answered the questions for yourself.

No, you shouldn't sit back and do nothing. And no, by letting go you are not saying that your problems don't exist.  By letting go you are acknowledging them, but you are choosing to not let your problems get under your skin. You are in fact saying: 'Yes, I see you, you are there, but I have a God much stronger and more capable than you. I have a God of more than enough as My Father. I have a Father Who can see the future, Who knows the best for me and Who will not allow evil to befall me.'

You see I realized again that we are children of the Most High God. Princes of the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are the kings and lords that He is King and Lord over. And if we truly realize that we are, then what do we have to worry about?

Have you ever seen the Queen of England worrying about her finances? No, of course not, she is a billionaire. Can you also ever imagine her looking after her own safety, checking if all the doors of Buckingham Palace are locked? No, of course not, she has a whole team of safety specialists looking after her safety.

And so I can go on, but you get the point. Now why are we any different? Our Father is infinitely richer than she will ever dream to be and He has all the 'safety specialists' lined up to protect us. So why are we so worried? Why are we so stressed out? Well, the answer really is because we trust more in what we can see around us than in the living God. We trust more in the news we receive than in the Bible. And that is why we are frantic and stressed out. If His Kingdom and all it entails was more of a reality to us than this world, we will be relaxed, filled with all His goodness and His Shalom peace.

We need to learn to look up, to follow Him and to trust Him above all else. Trust in a God that is good and wants only the best for you. Expect good rather than evil to befall you. Let go of all the stress you are holding on to. Let go of all the junk wearing you down. Rather surround yourself with the surreal experience of walking hand in hand with God, following Him wherever He goes. He knows best.

Let go and let God. Acknowledge the issue, then do your best in all situations, give it to Him and go on with your life, knowing that He will work out all things for your good (Romans 8:28).

Father please help us to live a 'let go' life. Help us to look up to You and not our problems. We give it all to You and trust You to help us and to show us the way. We love You. Amen

This week I am ending off this series of Kingdom living. I truly hope you have learned as much as I have. His Kingdom is marvellously glorious and we are part of it. And we are not merely part of it; we are part of it as His sons, royalty. I know I wrote a devotion about being God's son about a year ago, but I feel it is fitting to mention it again and to end off this series with this wonderful truth. Let me just build up your faith by quoting a couple of Scriptures from God's Word once again:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." Romans 8:14, 16

"For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ." Galatians 3:26

"For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12

"I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians 6:18

We are God's sons and a son of God abides in His house forever:

"And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever." John 8:36

We are forever in the house of God. God the Father, the Supreme Being over all the galaxies, planets, stars and heavens is our Father. And we can stay with Him forever. We are part of His Kingdom forever. The moment we accepted Jesus into our lives our spirits were reborn into His Kingdom and there we will remain forever. The first part of our Kingdom living will be on earth and the second (and much longer part) will be physically alongside Him.

We have learned that in His Kingdom as God's sons we are destined to reign, we are royalty, we are healthy, we are blessed, we are co-heirs with Jesus Christ and so much more. The benefits of the Kingdom is overwhelming and the love of God cascading down on us is extraordinary. We simply need to make it our own. As sons, we need to imitate our Father and become just like Him. As sons we need to make Him proud and show all unbelievers how privileged we are in order to lure them in.

Our Father looks after us, what do we have to be afraid of? Our Father protects us, why are we so scared? Our Father provides, why are we so worried? Our Father loves us, why do we act so unloved? Our Father sustains us, why do we run to other sources?

Stand up as the son that you are. Know who you are and walk in the reality of what is true of you. Live out Kingdom principles and be the son of God you were destined to be.

God has such a special plan for you, such a unique place to fill. Walk right into it and allow Kingdom living to manifest. This world needs the sons of God to stand up and be counted. This world is groaning, waiting for the sons of God to free it from distress. Allow the Spirit of God to arise within you and to change this world through you. You are His flesh and blood. Act like it. Act like you believe it. Then spiritual powers will be unleashed, chains broken and prisoners set free. Revival will break out, souls will be saved and the Kingdom of God will advance in a dark world. Stand up, the time has come, there cannot be delays any longer. The sons of God need to take up their swords and unleash the victory of Christ upon this world. The powers of darkness will fall back; they have no ground to stand on. Wear the helmet of salvation, the body armour of righteousness, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the shoes of Good News and swing your sword. Victory is ours. The Grace of God will be mightily with you. His Word has declared it so. Be strong and courageous, the King of kings has already overcome this world.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah on High! All glory to You oh God! You are mighty, awesome and deeply loved. We exalt You on high. We praise You and magnify Your Name forever and ever! Amen

We are anointed because we have the Anointed One living within us. And as we have seen last week, because we are anointed we also have the authority given to us from Above. We have the authority to do what He would have done on this earth. And we need to walk in that authority. We walk in it because we are part of His Kingdom already, where all love and peace resides. We are part of a Kingdom where God wants us to enjoy all that He blesses us with. And in this light we can understand the following text verses concerning our health better:

"...who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

"And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases." Psalm 103:2, 3

"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." 3 John 1:2

We were healed by the stripes of Jesus. How? By Him taking our punishment and transferring us into His Kingdom. And in His Kingdom none are sick. We can walk in the freedom of being in His Kingdom. Plus His Name is Yehovah Rapha, translated as "I am the Lord your Healer." That is one of God's Names. And He lives within us. Therefore we can say that the Healer lives within us, and if He lives within us, health and healing flow. God's best for us is to be healthy. And that is why Jesus could give the following command to His disciples before He left:

"And these signs will follow those who believe: In My Name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." Mark 16:17, 18

Notice that it is a command that Jesus gave to all that believe, in other words, us as believers. We are supposed to lay our hands on the sick and they should get healed. Why? Because the Healer lives within us and He is doing the healing through us. His life is flowing through our veins and when we lay our hands on the sick, the life is transferred to them.

God truly thought of everything. We must just be spiritually minded and believe that this is true. We should not be carnally minded and focus on this world, because then we will reap death (Romans 8:6). We should focus on Jesus and His finished work and then we will reap life and peace (Romans 8:6).

This life is not about us, it is not about us receiving glory for being able to heal the sick. No, this life is about Jesus, focusing on Him and allowing His life and peace to flow through us, in us and to others. He wants us to walk in Divine health, because then we can do Kingdom work to our utmost best. Our health is not for our benefit, though God loves us, but is there to be used to the good of all and to reach out to those in need. Use your health wisely, look to God for healing if need be and go out and be like Him in this world.

Thank you Father for providing the way for us. Thank you for our entrance into Your throne room, thank you that we are allowed to be there. And when we are there we can experience Your health, Your life and Your goodness. And once we do, we can share that with others too. We rejoice and love You. Amen

Jesus nourishes us and takes care of us. We are partakers of Him and members of His body and therefore we can partake in His Divine nature and be as He is in this world. We can share the oracles of God with this world and be free to be like Him and to care for this world. We learned all of that last week. And because we are part of Him, we are anointed like He was:

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." 1 John 2:20

All of us as Christians have an anointing from God. Not just certain special people but all of us. Why? Because the Anointed One lives within us. And notice, due to our anointing we know all things. This corresponds with 1 Corinthians 2:16 that tell us that we have the mind of Christ. And by default if you have the mind of Christ, you know all things. You see the more time you spend with God, the more you read the Bible and truly get to know Him, the more you will start to believe what is true of you in the spirit. And when you start to believe what is true of you in the spirit, true wisdom will manifest and His Spirit will start flowing in mighty torrents through you achieving His will in this world. You simply need to believe that you are anointed.

And once you believe that you are anointed and you allow Him to flow through you, you will go out and change the world, bit by bit. Jesus will be by your side and nothing shall by any means hurt you:

"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10:19

As His anointed ones, He has also given us authority to go out and be His hands and feet in this earth. Once again we only have this authority because He lives within us and He is King of all kings, supreme over all. And He works through us. Do not even stress about how you are going to share His Word and do what He would have done, because at the end of the day it is not you doing it. It is Him and all Him. And therefore He should receive all the glory forevermore! You just need to be open to be used.

Therefore we need to exercise ourselves towards godliness. We must exercise our faith muscles by reading and doing the Word of God.

"...exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." 1 Timothy 4:7, 8

Godliness is profitable both for now and for the life hereafter. This life is already part of the heavenly life. We are part of His Kingdom now already, and therefore we need to start acting as if we are. We need to start acting as if this is true and portray the characteristics of a Godly life. We are His Kingdom representatives. Stand tall and present His values to this world. Whether you are in the board room, the class room, the shops, the sporting field or at home. You need to represent Him in all aspects.

We are part of His family and therefore He can be trusted. After all His main aim for us is to love Him, to enjoy life and to present Him to the world. It is as simple as that. I would like to end off with a verse that confirms that God is a good God and that He supplies for us so that we can enjoy this life:

"Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy." 1 Timothy 6:17

Stand up in your anointing and be like Him in this world, loving, full of peace and enjoying all things.

Thank you Father for all Your riches. Thank you that You give us so much. Thank you for the anointing and authority that we have due to Your wonderful Son Jesus Christ. We praise and honour You forever and ever. Amen

We are part of God's Kingdom now already. We are the blessed ones, where everything will work out for our good. We live with the King of kings living within us. He nourishes us and therefore we can grow with the increase that is from God:

"Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God." Colossians 2:18, 19

Jesus nourishes us. Synonyms for the word 'nourish' is encourage, feed, nurture, promote, support etc. Jesus therefore encourages us never to give up, He feed us with the Word of God, He nurtures us and takes care of us, He promotes us to the next spiritual level, and He supports us in our dreams and helps us to achieve them. He does all this for us. Why? Because He loves us and we are part of His body. That is why Hebrews 3:14 tells us:

"For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end."

We are partakers of Christ. We are a member of His body, part and parcel of Him. Sit back and truly think about it. What will be impossible for you if the God of the impossible is part of you? He lives in all His fullness within you. And that is why you should be able to speak the oracles of God to this world:

"If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever." 1 Peter 4:11

You can speak with the oracles of God, not only ministers and ordained preachers. If you are a Christian you have His Spirit living within you and because you do, you can speak with the oracles of God. If you spend time with Him and get to know His heart for this world, you should stand up and share these revelations with the world. God will start sharing His vision for this world with you and you can start sharing it with others. God wants His children to be rivers. He wants us to receive word from Him and then He wants us to share. He doesn't want us to be like dams, hoarding all we receive from Him and not sharing it with others.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die and save the world. Notice that He loved the whole world. None is left out and it is the duty of those that have seen the light to go out and spread His light. Jesus will nourish you and provide for you. He will care for you and help you. He will be right by your side, cheering you on. Even more than that, He will be inside of you, cheering you on.

You are an ordained son of God; stand up in all that you are, right there where you are. Share His precious words and see how His Word comes to life. It is powerful and has the ability to change lives for the better. It has the ability to do wonders and to leave all breathless and amazed, wanting more. Be part of this, it will be more than worth it.

Thank you Father for sharing the oracles of God with us. Thank you for the saving grace of Your Son. Thank you that He nourishes us and takes care of us. Give us the courage and the ability to stand up and share Your message with the world. Amen

The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. We learned that last week. His amazing work on the cross and His resurrection opened up the way for us to have access to God the Father and because of that we have infinite power available. Ephesians 1:19, 20 confirm that we have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at our disposal. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and the fullness of all what that entails is ours for the taking. That is why Romans 8:38, 39 tells us:

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

When we walk in His Kingdom, we are surrounded by the love of God and if you have the love of God, you have everything life has to offer. God is love and when you have His love you have Him. All of Him. Isn't that amazing? And because we have the fullness of Him, we can agree with Paul:

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

All things will work together for our good when we love God and walk in His love for us. We can walk with faith knowing that Jesus saved us and that death and sin has no more dominion over us:

"Death no longer has dominion over Jesus (and Jesus lives in us). For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:9, 14

The dominion of sin and death has been broken over us by the death of Jesus. We can walk in freedom from that and truly experience the life that Jesus came to give us. He said that He came to give us life and life in abundance. He came so that we can truly breathe for the first time. And day by day we need to walk in that life. We need to walk with His life breathing His oxygen into our veins. The physical oxygen in our atmosphere is not all we need for true life, we need Him. He is the One giving us true life with His love surrounding us, working all things for our good. We need to have faith and believe what is true of us:

"So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." Galatians 3:9

Blessed are those that believe, not because we are more special than others; no we are blessed because when we believe, we move into the heavenly realm and receive all that we need from there. We move into the very presence of God, we breathe Him in and as we do, we walk as He walked, we do what He did and we reach out as He did. That is being truly blessed indeed.

When you start walking in unison with God, believing what His Word says is true about you and living within His love, everything will work out for your good. You will be blessed indeed. Take a stand today and start believing what is true about you and start living in His Kingdom. In His Kingdom is where you truly belong. This world is no longer your home. Make yourself comfortable in God's presence; you will be so glad you did.

Thank you Father for Your wonderful love that is all-consuming. Thank you for Your Divine Grace saving us from this world. We want to abide in Your presence, because we know that we are safe there and that there all of life's answers lie. Thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come into Your presence. We love You. Amen

God wants us to fly on eagle's wings. We saw that last week. He wants to work through us and bring His Kingdom to this fallen earth. He only wants us to be willing to be used. His Spirit will then flow through us into a broken world and bring healing where possible. He will even pray through us, when we do not know how to pray, He will literally do everything, we just need to be open that He can flow. We need to be spiritually minded and focus on the things that are important to God. He is a good, good Father, amazingly generous. He will provide in all our needs as we go out and make a difference for Him.

And all this is possible for us due to what Jesus did for us. The Good News is that our sins are forgiven and that He lives in all His power and might within us, ready to change the world:

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." Romans 1:16

The Gospel of Christ is the power of God. It brings forth God's mighty power within us. Sharing and declaring the Gospel of Christ will provide us with power. It brings salvation to everyone that believes. The word salvation here means Soteria in Greek. This word Soteria means "welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation and safety". Thus the Gospel of Christ brings all these wonderful things to us. Why? Because we are part of His Kingdom and in His Kingdom is His life and peace. His death and resurrection opened up the way for us to enter into God's presence with confidence and peace. We can come to Him as part of His family. We can come to Him today:

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2

The day of salvation is now. The day to prosper, to be delivered and to be safe is now. It is not at a future date when we have left this earth. No, the Word of God tells us that it is now. But notice, to 'prosper' doesn't necessarily refer to earthly riches. No, to prosper means to be within God's Will, to do what He called you to do, to walk within His perfect will for your life.

The Gospel of Christ is indeed Good News. He came to set us free from this world and to provide salvation for us now, today. And when you are free from this world, true living starts. It is immensely exciting. Start living from a heavenly perspective. Spend time with God and ask Him to show you what it is that He expects of you. Ask Him to show you your life from His perspective. It will surely liberate and free you from the pressures of this life. He will give you advice and show you the way to walk. You needn't stress and worry if you have Him by your side. He will tell you exactly what to do. All you need to do is to spend time with Him and follow His advice. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. Time spent with Him is time well spent. It will save you much heartache in the long run.

Thank you Father for the good news of Your Son! Thank you that He did everything to free us from this world. Thank you that He came to give us salvation. Help us to rather focus on You and Your Kingdom than on this life. We love and praise You. Amen

God's Spirit is with us to help us with our life's tasks. His Spirit is bountiful and full of mercy and good fruit. His Spirit has the ability to do anything and everything for us and through us. He wants to rejoice in us and work through us in order to change this world into a better place. He wants us to bring Heaven on earth by allowing Him to flow through. That is why Jesus said the following in John 7:38, 39:

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive."

His Spirit within us is like a flow of rivers. Notice not a trickle or a muddy pool, but rivers of water gushing out from within us. He has been poured out on us in abundance and now He wants to flow out of us in abundance. His living water wants to flow through and bring life to situations in this world. He wants to change people's lives and their circumstances for the better. But He wants to work through you. You need to be open to be used. What a sad day it would be if you weren't willing. The God of the Universe chose you to work through and yet you declined. That is failure, even if you were the CEO of the biggest global company in the world; you didn't 'climb the corporate ladder in His Kingdom'. God is reaching out and asking you to be a vessel for Him. You actually needn't do much; you simply need to be willing to be used. He will flow through and do what needs to be done. He will even help you when you do not know how to pray:

"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Romans 8:26

God in His infinite wisdom knew that sometimes your words will run out, your strength may decline and then you can only turn to Him and allow Him to pray on your behalf. And praying like that also builds up our faith. We certainly have a wonderful God.

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Jude 1:20, 21

Allow Him to pray through you and to work through you, all the while keeping yourself in the love of God. Allow Him free access into the deepest part of your soul. Give Him free reign. That is why Jesus says in several places that everything you pray for will be given unto you. Because if you pray with His Spirit flowing through you, you are praying His will and it will certainly come to pass! That is wonderful news. We just need to keep the door open for Him to flow through; it is really as simple as that.

And yet we often find it very difficult to do. We get so lost and wound up in this world and all the pressures that it brings that we don't even glance in His direction. We run and run, tired to the bone, and do not have enough energy to say a 5 minute prayer before we go to sleep. We have it all wrong. We must give over to Him, spend time with Him, pray and allow Him to take over. THEN we can go about our day and we will run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. We will fly on eagle's wings.

"But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

Come on and fly on wings like eagles. It sounds much better than tiredly retiring to bed at night. It is within your hands, the choice is yours.

Father we choose to fly. We want to fly onto higher heights that You are planning for us. We don't want to rush anymore, but rather we want to glide with You, praying in Your Spirit and seeing how Your will comes to pass. We want Your rivers of living water to influence all around us. Amen

We have so many things to be grateful for. We have so many blessings to thank God for. And last week we learned that God wants us to thank Him for it. Not necessarily constantly walking and thanking Him, but living a lifestyle of gratitude. Waking up in the mornings with a song in your heart, being grateful that you can get out of the bed and that you have things to do. What a privilege and an honour to roam this earth, knowing that God has a plan for you. Thank God for the opportunity to be able to represent Him today. You are more than able to, because you have His Spirit inside to help you. Just walk after His Spirit and do whatever His Spirit would do, then you cannot go wrong:

"He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:4

We can walk according to His Spirit, because His Spirit has been poured out on us in abundance:

"But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Titus 3:4-6

He poured out His Spirit on us in abundance. Notice the word 'abundance'. Isn't that wonderful? He didn't just give us a trickle of His Spirit, no; He gave us His Spirit in abundance, until it overflows. We will always have enough of Him. And because we do, we can do everything He requires of us. We can have His fruit multiplying within and we can distribute that fruit to all. We can also live in liberty:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Corinthians 3:17

There is liberty for us. 'Liberty' here means 'freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we can do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires'. In other words we are free to do what God wants us to do, we are not obligated anymore to follow the evil powers of this world as we had to before we were Christians. We are truly free. Free to follow in His footsteps, free to be like Him in this world, free to dance, sing and worship Him. We are not bound by rules anymore; we are free to be like Him in this world. We can come into His presence at any time; we can bask in His love at any given moment. I don't think we often realise what a privilege it is that we are able to do just that. Being in His presence, basking in His love, is the true answer to all of life's questions, it is true success.

We can therefore come and worship Him at any time. What an honour:

"For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Philippians 3:3

We needn't have any confidence in men, in the flesh. We can worship God, rejoice in Jesus and be free to be like them. We can walk in His Kingdom and share His love with all. That is the place God wants us to be and He has given His own Spirit to us to guide us in all His ways. When we do what He would have done, we are truly free from this world and its influences and we can walk as true sons of God with all the blessings and privileges associated with it.

Thank you Father for the honour and the privilege of being one with You. We have more than enough and we rejoice and worship You! You are our God and King and we love You dearly! Amen

We have learned so far that all of God's promises have come to pass in Jesus Christ. All of His promises are therefore for us, today. And because it is, all things are ours (1 Corinthians 3:21-23). This world, life and death, all things present and all things to come. This might sound fictional and not true, but that is what the Word of God says and we hold on to that truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and if we hold on to Him, we have it all. Everything is ours because we belong to Him, all glory to God! We are part of His Kingdom now already and we can therefore walk with the authority given from Above on this earth, knowing who we are in Christ.

And because all these wonderful amazing privileges are ours, we cannot do anything else but be thankful for all God has done for us. The Word tells us to always be thankful:

"And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:18-20

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 2 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34

We must give thanks to God in everything and for all things. We give thanks to Him because He is good and He has given us all things. How wonderful! So many things to be grateful for. This week go and write down everything that you can be grateful for. Have you thanked God for any of them? His Word tells us to give thanks in literally everything. That is one of the reasons why we pray before we eat, we thank God for the gift of food and with His blessing on it, the food is blessed too. Now to literally follow through with thanking God for everything, we will be thanking Him the whole day and not doing much else. The Word here is telling us that we must have a lifestyle of gratitude before the Lord. We must live and commune with Him within, being grateful for everything. Of course you can tell Him that you are thankful anytime, I just mean that sometimes that is not practically possible. A thankful heart and lifestyle is what God wants.

At the beginning of last year I had a sporting injury where I tore the tendon in my foot. For weeks I couldn't get out of bed without crutches, I couldn't walk, I couldn't drive, I couldn't exercise, I couldn't even take my cup of tea to where I am sitting and writing. I learned to be grateful again. Grateful that I can exercise, that I have the ability to, instead of looking up to doing it. Grateful that I can drive my own car, instead of moaning about the traffic. Grateful that I can take the stairs, instead of waiting for the lift. Grateful that I can do my own shopping, instead of moaning that I have to do it. There are so many things to be grateful for, many. My foot is completely healed by God's grace and healing power and I walk with thanksgiving towards Him.

We all have so many things to be grateful for. Think of them this week; write them down and thank God for them. And most importantly start living a life of gratitude. Then you won't covet what others have, you won't trample over others to be seen, you won't degrade others in order to look better yourself, you won't. You will live alongside God in His Kingdom, you will look at this life from His perspective and you will be eternally grateful for all He has in store for you now and in your life to come.

Thank you Father for all the blessings in our lives. Thank you for giving us so much. We love and adore You. You have given us so many things to be grateful for. We want to live a life honouring all that You have done for us, glorifying Your Name. We want to lift You on high. All glory to You. Amen