Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

As I mentioned in a previous post, we celebrated my firstborn's birthday last week. The celebration lasted all week...presents, friends, eating out and even a sea of balloons covering our living room in festive color for days! As the week came to an end and the toys found a home in the playroom and the balloons were transformed to confetti, my son came to me one evening and said, "Thanks, Mom, for all the fun we had this week." He spoke of his favorite details and how much fun he'd had.

I smiled and kissed his forehead...still reeling over this baby turning eleven!

This memory came to mind as I read Psalm 116:17 this morning. "I will offer You a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD." (NLT)

...a sacrifice of thanksgiving...

Sometimes thanksgiving just overflows naturally from a joyful experience, like it did for my son. But then, sometimes it really is a sacrifice, isn't it?

Sometimes thanksgiving is the last thing you feel like doing.
Sometimes it seems thanksgiving might even be painful.

How do you give thanks when a loved one is painfully ill? when you have no income? when someone has failed you? when you are in a storm?

That's when it become a true sacrifice of thanksgiving. The Lord is greatly blessed when we overflow with natural thanksgiving. As I am when my son wraps his arms around me and pauses in the mist of his fun to say, "Thanks, Mom." But when the pain seems overwhelming and yet we recognize the goodness of the Lord and we pause, resting in His everlasting arms, and look into His face calling out, "Thank you, Father, for You are in this and You are still good."

"I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!" (Ps. 116:1-2 NLT)

He bends to hear you better. He bends to hear me better. He is listening for the sacrifice of thanks that demonstrates a heart that trusts Him. Not all things feel good. But we can trust that all things are for the good of those who love Him and are called according to HIS purposes. He has a purpose and a plan. Press into Him and lay your sacrifice of thanks, your hardest thanks, right on the alter of divine purpose. There alone it can be redeemed.