14.1

Day 1 of the “14 Days of Thanks”

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands. (Psalm 63:1-4)

I think if we are to truly give thanks, we must first come to a place where we realize we are in need… and not just any place of need, but a place where we realize we are in desperate need.

Desperate Need.

The tendency for us, as humans, is to think we are self sufficient and in turn give thanks for our “self” sufficiency.  We become thankful for our house, our choice of marriage partner, our job, our car, our accomplishments, our food etc… because we made these choices with our power and though we will tag God’s name on the end of our thanks, inside we do not really giving Him credit because our thanks did not come from a heart that knows it is in desperate need of Him…

for true thanksgiving comes from a place of desperate need

a place where the realization of our desperation causes us to cry out to God and say…

“earnestly I seek You…

My soul faints for you

my flesh faints for you

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

It is at this point that a heart of true thanks is born.  Thankful because of the might of God and the power of God in our lives.  Thankful because we realize that without His powerful, mighty involvement in our lives we would be nothing, have nothing and void of blessings.

A might and a power wrapped in infinite unchangeable generous Love…

that causes lips to move in praise

and hands to rise in worship.