Happy Thanksgiving

CHRISTINA FOX | EDITOR Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at enCourage! "...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).

Happy Thanksgiving2023-11-01T18:53:13+00:00

Gratitude for Both the Good and the Hard

KRISTEN THOMPSON | GUEST One of my favorite childhood Thanksgiving traditions was the making of “thankful turkeys” with my family. We would list things we were grateful for on paper shaped feathers and then glue them to a cutout of a turkey. As a kid, it was easy to tape feather after feather onto my turkey: family, school, friends, candy corn, Thanksgiving Day rolls, etc.  Recently, I’ve wondered why it feels harder as an adult to list my “feathers of gratitude” than it did as a kid. After all, I’ve experienced more years of God’s presence and faithfulness in my life, and I know Scripture better now than I did back then. However, more years of life have also brought more trials. Though I trust God’s sanctification of me is ongoing, gratitude is one area where it seems like the older I get, the more my natural bent is to grumble rather than give thanks—much like the Israelites grumbled after God delivered them from slavery (Ex. 15:24, 16:2, 17:3). I too am quick to forget God’s provision in my life. But Scripture is filled with calls to give thanks to God (read almost any of the Psalms or Paul’s letters and you’ll find the words “thanks” or “thanksgiving” scattered across them). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 even includes giving thanks as part of “God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” Why is this such an important command, and what should we be thankful for?...

Gratitude for Both the Good and the Hard2023-11-01T18:45:58+00:00

Give Thanks to the Lord

BECKY KIERN|CONTRIBUTOR O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, planes formed of old, faithful and sure. He will swallow up death forever; and the LORD GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, It will be said on that day; “Behold, that is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”  (Isaiah 25:1, 8-9) There is nothing like the excitement of children around the holidays. Just the other day while on a video call with my niece, she excitedly showed me a count-down chain she and my nephew had just finished creating. She explained how each little paper circle represented a day of school they must complete before they get to start Christmas break. Christmastime is almost here, and she can’t wait. Likewise, the Christmas season stirs up a variety of emotions in adults as well. Gathering with family and friends can bring us much joy, laughter, and gratitude. But the season can also bring painful memories and tears as we grieve those who won’t celebrate the holidays with us this year. Hard emotions born from life lived in a fallen world often compete with the joy of the season—emotions such as grief, fear, doubt, weariness, loneliness, cynicism, or despair. They may wrestle for our affections and attempt to steal our hope and joy. But Advent knows better!...

Give Thanks to the Lord2023-03-24T17:46:35+00:00

Giving Thanks Every Day

BETHANY BELUE|GUEST Ten years ago, I sat across the table from a dear friend whose mother had recently passed away.  As we shared a bowl of cheese dip, she talked to me about the pain of losing someone so close to her.  Her grief was raw; her questions were real. But what I saw even more was how she clung to Jesus through her pain. That night she shared with me about keeping a journal of gratitude through the difficult season of watching her mom battle an illness and eventually go into the arms of Jesus. Each night, she wrote out specific things she was thankful for, things she was trusting God for, and a promise of God she was clinging to. Over time, she had pages and pages filled with her thoughts and desires. Although it did not change her circumstances, it gave her perspective in the midst of life's storms. What Happens When We Trace God’s Goodness As I walked the Manhattan streets back to my apartment that night, I was challenged by the discipline of my friend and her simple practice to remind herself of truth. At that time, I was in a season where life felt mundane and so many desires were unmet. It was so easy to lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day and think that the Lord was not answering my prayers and wonder where He was in my story.   That night, I decided to start keeping my own journal...

Giving Thanks Every Day2023-03-24T17:46:59+00:00

From Grumbling to Gratitude

MARLYS ROOS|GUEST Have you ever played Doublets? It’s a simple word game, requiring only paper and pencil. Doublets was created by math professor, Charles L. Dodgson, (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland) in the late 1870s. The object of the game is to transform one word into an opposite term of the same length, one letter at a time, in as few steps as possible. It’s easy to change “dog” into “cat” or “heads” into “tails.” Advanced players transform longer words with more steps. Although “grumbling” and “gratitude” are both nine-letter words, I’m not sure grumbling can be transformed using Dodgson’s method. It takes divine intervention. Getting It Backwards Yet turning gratitude into grumbling is easy (though not in Doublets). It’s been part of our nature since the serpent in Genesis 3 twisted God’s words to make Eve question God’s goodness. Adam and Eve had everything: the perfect life with no illness, death, troubles, or shame, plus they had the physical presence of God to walk with them. What more could they have wanted? But there was that one thing they didn’t have, couldn’t have (v.3). So, Satan contorted the truth, infected them with the first case of FOMO, and turned their gratitude into grumbling...

From Grumbling to Gratitude2023-03-24T17:47:24+00:00

Turning the Dials at Thanksgiving

HOLLY MACKLE|CONTRIBUTOR It’s Thanksgiving and I’m in the kitchen turning dials, trying so hard to get everything just right. If only I spoke of solely the oven dial—but who can forget the relational dials, the conversational dials, the quick repentance dials, and even the simple act of dialing the number just to extend the invitation. At the holidays it seems there are far too many complex layered dials to turn and crank and adjust just so. It can be downright exhausting. My brilliant neighbor owns and operates her own medical testing lab. (STEM girl, whoop!) At the very beginning of the Covid crisis—you remember, the days when we didn’t understand the first thing about transmission—one of her employees began running a high fever. My neighbor sent her entire staff home and undertook the painstaking process of sanitizing and deep cleaning the lab all by herself. Trouble was, this wasn’t the chemistry lab from our high school recollections. My friend sanitized every piece of precision equipment, each complex apparatus with countless knobs, dials, levers, and pulls. I can still see my sweet neighbor’s face as she described the nature of what had to be done. It was all-encompassing. She had to find and scour every crevice for the protection of all involved. I’m hard-pressed to think of anything that sounds more like Jesus to me. Her actions remind me of the Christ who won’t stand for a quick wipe down of our hearts. His holiness and utter righteousness can’t give it a once over and call it a day—his beloved are at stake. For any particle of sin left on us or in us makes us unacceptable to his Father, the God of all cellular levels, protons, elements, and even viruses...

Turning the Dials at Thanksgiving2023-03-24T18:13:16+00:00

Give Thanks to the Lord

SARAH IVILL|CONTRIBUTOR Many of us will soon gather around tables with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. For some of us, the day will be filled with feasting and fun. For others, the day will be one of grief and sadness, especially if loved ones are missing from the table. But regardless of whether we are rejoicing or weeping this holiday season, the Bible teaches us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16), and Psalm 118 teaches us how and why to do this. The psalmist calls us to give thanks to the Lord for three main things: His steadfast love, His salvation, and His stone. Give Thanks for His Steadfast Love Psalm 118 opens in the same way it closes, highlighting the eternality of God’s covenant love, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (118:1, 29). The Lord’s goodness is grounded in His covenant love for His people and God’s people should praise Him for it. The psalmist could not be clearer that all believers should sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, “Let Israel…the house of Aaron…those who fear the LORD say, ‘His steadfast love endures forever’” (vv. 2-4). Ever since Genesis 3, the account of humankind’s fall into sin, the thread of the covenant of grace has been woven throughout Scripture. God’s covenant love endures because it is based on the obedience of His Son, Jesus Christ. He came as both Lord of the covenant, extending grace and peace, as well as the servant of the covenant, perfectly fulfilling the law of God on our behalf. “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). This Thanksgiving our hearts should give thanks for the Lord’s steadfast love...

Give Thanks to the Lord2023-03-24T18:13:31+00:00

So Grateful, So Grateful

My friend was telling me the saga of her teenage son’s illness. As a Down syndrome child, he had trouble enough with swallowing and digestion. But then he developed urgent issues that landed him in the hospital, and even after getting home, he could not eat solid food for almost two months. She and her son, both Christians, prayed together for mercy and healing, but it was a tough road to recovery. She described his first taste of normal food: a few potato chips. She told me that with each bite, he murmured, “So grateful. So grateful.” What she hadn’t expected is that he continues to say the same with each bite, days later. “So grateful, so grateful.” I carry a humbled admiration at a boy feeling such a sustained yet spontaneous gratitude for the simple blessing of healthy eating. What pleasure that must bring to God’s heart. As I have studied the conclusion of I Thessalonians 5, I find this little volley of exhortations: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.” As I have turned these over in my mind the last several weeks, I’ve sensed that they are almost the same command stated three ways. Finding things to rejoice over and thank God for constantly will require ceaseless prayer, not only for expression to God but to seek His voice and vision for the good in all circumstances. If we give thanks in all circumstances, we will rejoice. We will offer those thanks by praying as much as we rejoice. It all goes round in a wonderful wreath of heartfelt communion with the Lord...

So Grateful, So Grateful2022-04-28T02:16:41+00:00
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