Guest Post: THE HEART OF THANKSGIVING

We recently had Citipointe Live at The Rock Church who inspired us to begin a weekly meeting with the Creative Artists who are or desire to use their gifts in TRC. We are having an amazing time of worship and mentorship. Here are the notes from Terryl Padilla's message on The Heart of Thanksgiving:

The History of Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving is a holiday to express thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation to God, family and friends for which all have been blessed. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. This holiday has since moved away from its religious roots.

On Thanksgiving day, we make blanket statements in a 30 second prayer.

§ Thank you for my family

§ Thank you that everyone can be together

§ Thank you for the food that was prepared and the people that prepared it

All of these are great prayers, but really, how often do we say, “God, It was You that has brought every good thing into my life and I am grateful for what you’ve done”?

James 1:17 says:

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift [comes] from above…”

As I was doing this study on the heart of thanksgiving, God impressed something on my heart:

The heart of Thanksgiving = Everything Comes from God

The root of Pride = Everything comes from me

The heart of thanksgiving will squelch the root of pride in our lives.

Entering His Gates with Thanksgiving:

Now I am not saying that everyone who is reading this is ungrateful. I know that for all of us, as worshippers, It is our job to Recognize what God has given us and Love praising him for it.

Psalm 100:4 says:

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

The Power of Our Words:

As worshippers, we also all have Power in the words we use. And sometimes we forget that. We forget that there is power in the words of a thankful heart.

We have the power of life in our worship, and in our daily conversations with God and those around us. We also have the potential to speak death into our lives and those around us.

When we don’t recognize that our words have the power of life and death, we are apt to use our words negatively.

I believe that the enemy loves to attack the thoughts and words of Worshippers. Satan will use the gift that God gives us to be the Trojan horse that steals everything from within us.

If I do find myself on the verge of depression, or speaking negatively, I look to the most emo artist ever… David!

He wrote things like:

Psalm 43:5

⁵ Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again—
my Savior and my God!

And

Psalm 28:1-2

¹ I pray to you, O Lord, my rock.
Do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you are silent,
I might as well give up and die.
² Listen to my prayer for mercy
as I cry out to you for help,
as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.

Even in our darkest hour, God is our hope, and our thoughts, words, and actions should reflect that. God has created EVERY single one of us to use our words to worship him. I truly believe that when we make a decision to speak words of Thanksgiving, it allows God to open the doors of blessing on our lives.

For the rest of this month, I would encourage you to keep a “Thanksgiving Journal” during your quiet times. You will be surprised with the things the Holy Spirit will bring to mind that you have never thanked God for before.

This Season reminds us of the reasons to be thankful. Let’s not let it end after December. Let our prayer be this:

“God, don’t let me forget where my gifts come from. Continually remind me of every single person, relationship and blessing that I can be thankful for”.