More than Food

“If you can’t find it on the inside you won’t find it on the outside.”

Thanksgiving wasn’t always about the food.  It began with what you might expect by the name; a day to give thanks and prayers.  In 1789 President Washington wanted to institute a “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”    It wasn’t about the food, it wasn’t about the decorations, it wasn’t about the house, it wasn’t about anything but thanks.  Thanks isn’t something you find in the things you think you might, because if you don’t find it inside of you nothing on the outside will sustain it for you.  We spend so much time focusing on looking put together and a good presentation that we miss what we are really searching for in those things...contentment.  We want to feel good about who we are and the direction we are headed.  We look all over for it but it’s not an outside-in process.  It only works inside-out.  Stop looking for what you already have...the capacity to be thankful.  Acknowledge and never stop that which you have to be thankful for and as you keep acknowledging you will find a new way of seeing, a new way of being...content...it starts with thanks.  

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are--no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

Matthew 5:5 Message

The blessing is not in the receiving but in not needing to.  God calls us to be thankful and content because He knows how that will bless and shape our lives.  He knows we have every reason in Him to be thankful and how much we need to be thankful.  It protects us from the destruction and harm of envy, jealousy and discontent.  It provides us with joy even in the hard places.  Thankfulness brings us back to Him the giver of all we have to be thankful for.  So you see it’s for us.   If you are searching for blessing ask for contentment and keep asking.  You will find more than you ever wanted on the feet of thankfulness.  

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