I wrote this over twenty years ago, but it spoke to my heart again this morning. Let me share it with you.

As I sat in my study this morning praying, the kinds of things that kept coming to my mind to thank God for was not my home, my car, my computer, my bed. It was things like the people God has placed around me and brought into my life. The fact that when I don’t know how to pray the Holy Spirit translates my prayers into the will of God, I don’t have to worry about how to pray, I just pour my heart out to Him and let Him take care of it. The faithfulness of God even in my unfaithfulness. The fact that even when I feel like a spiritual failure God has already overcome the old sinful nature and given me new life in Christ. Even the irritants that God brings into my life to keep me from getting stale. Remember milk before it was homogenized? The cream would separate out and rise to the top. To keep that from happening you had to occasionally stir it or shake up the container. Sometimes I think God sends irritants and even irritating people into our lives to keep us from settling out into layers and relating only to those who are like us or doing only those things which we like to do. To be effective and to be all that we are to be as a church God sends irritants to keep us shaken up a bit. To keep us whole milk, so to speak. So I found myself thanking God for the irritants that He brings into my life. Thanks Giving ought to be a focal point of our lives and our worship. It acknowledges the person and authority of God. Let me challenge you to pick a spot on the road between home and church. Make it your thanks giving reminder. Begin a practice of giving thanks all the way from that point to church in preparation for fellowship and worship. May God make us thanks giving people and a thanks giving church.