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By God’s Grace
Thanksgiving is simply not forgetting. St. Paul said, everything is God’s grace.
He said, I am who I am by God’s grace.
Yes. Everything is by God’s grace. I am who I am by God’s grace.
The fact that I can breathe is God’s grace. The fact that I can have a good and peaceful sleep at night is God’s grace. Living with joy and peace is by God’s grace.
Grace is such a beautiful gift of God and yet so many people don’t feel it and that’s sad.
They live with this tremendous burden that everything depends on them. They don’t feel the giftedness of life every day.
People who experience grace don’t live like that.
It’s not that they don’t work hard. They work hard too. But in the end, they know that everything in life does not depend only on them and their abilities.
They know that life is more than what they can make with their own hands. They know that life is bigger than them.
So even when they become weak, they don’t give up. Even when the future is gloomy, they don’t lose hope. Even when they get old, their spirit is always young.
That was the life of St. Paul. That’s why he said this.
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
What’s going on outside is only a fraction of your existence. What’s going on inside is a greater portion of your life.
When you know that you are who you are by God’s grace, you can live a SOLID life. You will not be easily defeated.
A Lesson for All
Moses wanted to teach his people this beautiful lesson. He wanted his people to live a solid life.
If you can teach your children that life is a gift of God and there is a power of God’s grace that will carry their life, you are giving them the best lesson of life.
You are not just giving them fish. You teach them how to fish. You teach them the secret of life.
They will not be defeated in life. They will enjoy every moment of their life. That is the best lesson that you can give to your children.
We don’t know what they will experience in life.
They may experience challenges bigger than what they can handle with their own strength. They may lose themselves, their confidence, and their hope. They may experience failures. They may lose their health.
But if you teach them that there is power of God’s grace, they can overcome their challenges.
Moses wanted to teach them this lesson.
Wilderness was the best place the Israelites could learn this lesson. It was God’s grace to let the Israelites go through the experience of wilderness. God wanted to teach them that they were not alone.
We human beings never learn with our brain. We learn only when we feel through the skin.
In the wilderness, they learned the lesson not with their brain but through their skin.
When there was nothing to eat, they experienced hunger in their stomach. When there was nothing to drink, they experienced the thirst in their mouth. When they were bitten by poisonous snakes, they felt the pain through the skin.
But through those experiences, they learned that it was God who provided.
We can see that in today’s passage.
(It is God) who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. (Deuteronomy 8:15, 16)
God put them in a condition where they could not do anything.
Then he wanted to teach them this: even in a condition where you cannot do anything, you will survive because of my grace.
Their wilderness experience was God’s grace for them. It was God’s blessing.
Learn Through Your Suffering
Sometimes our suffering is God’s hidden blessing. There are things you can never learn without suffering.
You cannot learn humility without suffering. You cannot learn your limitations without suffering. You cannot learn that life is about helping each other without suffering. You cannot learn to feel others’ suffering without suffering. You cannot learn that you can be stronger with suffering.
More than anything else, you cannot learn that our life is by God’s grace without suffering.
Suffering will never disappear from us.
We have suffering in our broken relationships. We have the pain of sending away loved ones first. There are also people who hurt us. We go through our own personal darkness. Suffering will always be there.
I hope that these sufferings may not make you weak. Rather, I hope that they teach you about God’s grace.
Do Not Forget
The biggest problem is that we live forgetting God’s grace. That was what Moses was concerned about.
We can see that clearly in Moses’ words.
When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… (Deuteronomy 8:12-14)
Not forgetting, Remembering – that is what thanksgiving is. Not to forget that your life is by God’s grace – that is thanksgiving.
If you don’t forget this, your suffering will not overwhelm you. You will never perish.
When you are healthy, you don’t realize how important it is to be healthy. When you have plenty of food, you don’t know how good it is to have food at every meal. When everything is going well, you don’t know how things can be so complicated.
That’s when you forget.
When things go well, you forget. You even forget God. Then thankfulness disappears from your heart too.
That is the beginning of problems. Your heart will be replaced by complaints, dissatisfaction, and frustration. That’s not the end. Worries, anxiety, fear, and darkness will fill your heart.
Spiritual amnesia – that is something we have to deal with when we try to live a spiritual life.
Don’t fall into spiritual amnesia. Write a thanksgiving journal. Every day, from small things, learn to appreciate. Verbalize your appreciation. Express it, to others, to yourself, and to God and write them in your journal.
Spiritual people are filled with thanksgiving.
People who live with deep thankfulness will never perish. Their life will be open.
Blessings follow those who live their lives with thankfulness. Thankfulness brings another thankfulness. And this thankfulness brings blessings.
Remembering is Thanksgiving
When thankfulness disappears from you, your life becomes dark. The best therapy for your gloominess is to cultivate this thankfulness within you.
There are so many things to be thankful for.
When you think about these things, you have no time to complain. But people make time to complain. Very unwise.
Be thankful. It is a very simple thing to do but a very powerful and effective thing to do.
When you start having this thankfulness, your life becomes untangled. You will see that.
Don’t make your life complicated. Be thankful for the roses. But also be thankful for the thorn. That is life’s secret.
Thankfulness opens your life. Complaints and criticism close your life. When you are thankful, you will see a path you didn’t see before.
It is a path that shows you what to do. It is a path that leads you to the solution to your problems.
Thanksgiving will give you life’s confidence.
This is St. Paul’s confession.
Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)
He said, “I can do all things.” Not because of his own abilities but because of the one who strengthened him.
Don’t forget that life is a gift. Enjoy it and be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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