Good morning and a most blessed Thursday. 

In this devotion, a week before Thanksgiving Day, I would like to share with you a beautiful poem written by Reverend Gerhard E. Frost. He was a Lutheran pastor and seminary professor, and this is a wonderful poem written by him. It's called "Let Us Give thanks."

"Let us give thanks this moment for the sturdy fact of God's continuing love, for mercies which go before us and follow after us, for those free gifts which cost God so much. Let us give thanks for memory and expectation, for the good that we have known and know today in Jesus Christ, for the Spirits brooding presence in our nights and our days. Let us give thanks for pleasures which comfort and pains which force our growth and keep us at our shepherd side, for deep meanings revealed and mysteries mercifully concealed, for the image of God within us, the capacity to inquire and adore. Let us give thanks for one another for just being together, for differences that complement and complete, for gifts which enrich and disagreements which challenge for our oneness in Christ. Let us give thanks for melody and mirth, for rhythm and beat, for the repeated and the common, for the ever unfolding and for senses with which to respond. And let us give thanks for someone to thank." 

I specifically or especially love that last line in this poem. "Let us give thanks for someone to thank." I give thanks to God that He is the God that He says he is, that he is sovereign and almighty and is concerned with you, for you, about you. He is so concerned for you that he sent his own Son to die for your sins. He is so concerned with you that he hears the prayers we lift to him today and always and promises to answer them.

His concern and his love is for you always, forgiving your sins and wrapping you in his love and filling you with his Spirit. We give thanks for that. We give thanks for Him. We give thanks for all that he provides. Let us give thanks to him in prayer together now.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you forgive our sins. We thank you that you love us and that you have called us to be your own. We thank you for those that you have brought into our lives, that we have loved and have been loved by. We ask that you would keep us continually giving you thanks and praise because we know that all that we have is out of your bounty and out of your goodwill for us, Lord.

We thank you for who you have created us to be. We thank you for the redemption that we have in your Son, Jesus Christ. And we thank you that we get to share this good news with others. Use this time of thankfulness to your glory and to your good purpose and will. Lord, we praise you and we give you thanks in.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

I cannot wait to give thanks and praise the Lord with you this coming Sunday. Until then, God.

Pastor Malinak