Dave's Diary

This week we will be on a deliberate journey of thanksgiving as we (Walmer Methodist Church) prepare our hearts for our Thanksgiving Services next Sunday. On a practical note, may I suggest we each take a daily time of reflection to consider our reasons for thanksgiving, and even to write down as comprehensive a list as possible of what we’re thankful for. By the end of the week, I’m sure that list will contain more than enough reasons to give thanks to the LORD!

Daily Reading: Psalm 100

⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations

Psalm 100 commands God’s people to come before the LORD, Yahweh, with shouts of joy, glad worship and joyful songs of praise and thanksgiving. It encourages us to do so in the sure and certain awareness that the LORD Himself created us. He gave us life! We belong as children in His Family (“we are His people”) and as sheep in His Fold (“the sheep of His pasture”). We are not just called to praise some distant God. We are called to praise the One Who is the Source and Sustainer of our lives – the One to Whom we owe our very existence and our every heartbeat!

As if that was not enough reason to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, Psalm 100 highlights a few specific characteristics of God’s dealings with us, and calls us to thankfulness for God’s goodness, eternal love and steadfast faithfulness down through the ages.

This week, as we at Walmer prepare our hearts to give thanks, let’s take time to look back on the year and to consider how we have been the recipients of God’s goodness. Remembering James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father … “, let’s reflect on anything and everything good that has happened in our lives, everything that has added a sense of contentment, fulfilment, satisfaction, enjoyment or wellbeing. Let’s reflect on experiences that we’ve had that have opened our eyes to the love of God, those moments of deep soul-peace or consciousness of our acceptance and belonging to our loving God. And let’s consider the many ways God has kept His promises to us in steadfast faithfulness. As CH Spurgeon wrote in commenting on this verse and on “faithfulness”: “Our heart leaps for joy as we bow before One who has never broken his word or changed his purpose. Resting on his sure word, we feel that joy which is here commanded, and in the strength of it we come into his presence even now, and speak good of his name!“

Holy Spirit, as I reflect on the year, guide my memories and my thoughts so that I may adequately recall all the goodness and mercies of God my Father. Amen.