Thankfulness

Thankfulness

Its that time of year again…”Thanksgiving”… as I sat pondering writing in this blog, I felt the moving of the Holy Spirit to share about what Thanksgiving is to me.

It’s more than a word, more than a thought, more than a feeling, it’s my very life.

When I think on things my heart can do nothing but give the LORD thanks and praise.

I began to think of Paul and Silas, how it must have been for them in prison. {Acts 16:16-34} The jailer was commanded to keep them secure, so he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. {Acts 16:23-24} But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying, and singing praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. {Act 16:25} (NKJV) As they were singing praises and thanking the Lord, the earth shook and immediately all the doors were opened and all the chains were loosed.{Acts 16:26} Then when the jailer awoke and saw what was happening and thought all the prisoners had escaped, not knowing that they had all just been set free from their bondages he was about to take his own life when Paul began sharing with him what he needed to do to saved and have his chains loosed.

Not only was the jailor and his family saved that day {Acts 16:33-34} NKJV but Paul and Silas were set free too. No more chains to bind them, no more darkness, no more damp smelly dungeon, they were set free. Their chains were broken.

As I continued my thoughts, I remembered that not only were Paul and Silas’ chains loosed that day at midnight, but all the prisoners were, “everyone’s chains were loosed”. {Acts 16:26} NKJV

What if we praised and thanked the Lord when we are in our dark, damp, gloomy dungeons, when life dishes out the hard times, the money is to short, there is sickness in our family, etc. Would the chains in our life be loosed? But what about the others around us who would hear us praising Him and thanking Him, would their chains be loosed? Would they be set free from their dark, damp, and gloomy dungeon? When the people of the lost and hurting world see and hear the praises of His people would they be set free from the chains that bind them? And what if we thanked and praised Him all year long, not just at Thanksgiving?

I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I challenge each one of us this Thanksgiving Holiday, to give our thanks and praise to the Lord and give it loudly so that the entire world may hear and know “How Great is Our God”!

Carma Wirth

Women’s Ministry Director

Faith Tabernacle Assembly of God