Thanksgiving Overflow! - Ten Days of Bounty in Worship & GratitudeSample

Thanks-Living...

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Luke 22:19

Lord Jesus, on the night of His betrayal, worshiped the Father with holy thanks, knowing that his body would be broken, scourged, pierced, and nailed only a few short hours later. With even more heart-rending consequence, Jesus knew His Father would have to turn His face from Him who bore all our sin, sickness, wretchedness, and brokenness.

Jesus gave thanks as He instituted communion – His last supper with His disciples – until all believers will share supper again with Him at His marriage feast. And Communion is often called the Eucharist– the beautiful Greek word meaning to give thanks or thanksgiving, with the Greek word charis, translated into English as grace smack dab in the middle of it.

Author Ann Voskamp, from her book, One Thousand Gifts, writes:

Eucharisteo means “to give thanks,” and give is a verb, something that we do. God calls me to do thanks. To give the thanks away. That thanks-giving might literally become thanks-living. That our lives become the very blessings we have received. I am blessed. I can bless. Imagine! I could let Him make me the gift! I could be the joy!*

Just as Jesus gave thanks as He broke the bread, when we give thanks to our Father, there is a breaking in us, too. In worship and gratefulness, we come to realize that we really are dust without Him. This would seem to cause us to question our worth, but instead, in our Father’s great love, our thanksgiving elevates our position. We recognize how beloved and valued we genuinely are.

How are you encouraged from this brief lesson, that He could make you a gift of joy to Himself and others today?

*Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2010)