Fields United Methodist Church

Jesus Along the Way: Words of Grace and Hope.                   Pastor Tom Joyce

September 8, 2020

“Praise to the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.”  Psalm 106:1

Giving thanks to God is the purest form of faith; thanksgiving confesses we are not God and professes our full trust and faith in the One who created us, called us by name, and redeemed us through our Lord Jesus Christ.  From the time I could remember, my parents instilled in me to thank those around me for gifts, kind words, or just random acts of kindness. Giving thanks are just not words to say, it is part of who we are, and when we give thanks to God we are professing our absolute trust in the One who promised to be with us, even to the end of the age. It is easy to give thanks for good times, good friends, and the grace of others. When we give thanks to God it is more about thanking God for the love that “endures” forever, not just on certain days or during certain celebrations. Giving thanks is all about the understanding that in the midst of challenging times, God is, and always will be; the “Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Jonah offered a prayer of thanksgiving in a belly of a whale, imagine that; during probably the most challenging and humbling time of his life, he gave thanks. When we accept the cleansing blood of Jesus, who died on a cross and was resurrected on the third day to offer us new life that endures forever, our soul cannot help but give thanks. What if we thanked God for everything, the good times and the bad; the celebrations and the heartbreaks? O not that these events occurred but thanking God for the love, grace, hope, and peace we have received from our Lord even in the midst of those times. A story I have told many times about when our mission team in Joplin sat in the gymnasium of a church not more than a few hundred yards from unbelievable devastation caused by an F-5 tornado. We started just saying “thank you Jesus” to one another but then the more we said it, the more we meant it, and each of us from that moment lived every moment thanking God, even in the midst of the most challenging times in our lives. Thanking Jesus should be a continual affirmation from the time we rise, to the time we rest. Want to transform your life and know the joy of the Lord? Then “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.”  Thank you Jesus!

Rev. Tom Joyce