So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7
Most loving Jesus, it’s the beginning of “Thanksgiving Week” and I want to give you the quality and quantity of thanks of which you are absolutely worthy. Not like a slow drip, a babbling brook, a meandering stream, but like a geyser… a gratitude-geyser. I want to overflow with thankfulness superabundantly… to the praise of your glory and grace!
I have every reason to reenact the story of the healed Samaritan leper, who with a stunned heart returned to give you thanks (Luke 17:11-17). I return today, and I want to return every day to express my profound thankfulness.
Jesus, from the first nanosecond I was given faith to trust you as Savior and Lord, I was fully and firmly rooted in your righteousness and love. Now, completely forgiven, I have no other righteousness than yours. Just as I can’t add one iota to your righteousness, I can’t diminish one degree of your love… and your love, alone, is better than life.
You’ve have already set us free from the penalty of sin… you’re continually setting us free from the power of sin…. and one Day you’ll set us free from the very presence of sin.
Jesus, because all of this is true, I want to live in you… reflecting upon your glory with an unveiled face and marinating in the riches of your unfailing grace. I want to be built up in you… maturing by the same grace that saved me… being liberated for the race that you’ve set before me. I want to be strengthened in you… forgiving others as you have forgiven me… forbearing with others as you forbear with me… accepting others as you accept me.
Jesus, I want to have done with all carping and droning… with all whining and complaining… with all boohoo-ing and Eeyore-ing… and with every other expression of ingratitude. So rise up in me, O, Living Water, unto eternal life. Artesian spring of grace, come forth with such compelling and propelling force that my thanks will not be miserly but geyserly… all Thanksgiving Week long. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ beautiful and bountiful name.
