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114: A Thanksgiving Reflection and Blessing
54 Plays28 days ago
As you prepare for Thanksgiving, Dr. Laura Fleetwood invites you to be still and reflect on the goodness of God, to meditate on the blessings in your life, to give yourself grace, and to give thanks to God. Her prompts in this week’s episode will help you do all those things.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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Transcript
Pause and Give Thanks for Blessings
00:00:04
Speaker
As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, this meditation is an opportunity for you to pause and take a moment to reflect and give things on all of the blessings that God has given you. For the purpose of this meditation, I will be using the amplified version of scripture.
Every Gift is from Above
00:00:26
Speaker
And we begin with James 1 verse 17.
00:00:31
Speaker
every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of the Light, the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens, in whom there is no variation, no rising or setting, or shadow cast by His turning.
00:00:52
Speaker
for He is perfect and never changes.
Reflecting on Spiritual Milestones
00:00:56
Speaker
It was of His own will that He gave us birth as His children by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures, a prime example of what He created to be set apart to Himself, sanctified, made holy for His divine
00:01:22
Speaker
In this meditation, we are going to take a journey, a walk. So as you get comfortable, close your eyes, take a deep breath in and out.
00:01:38
Speaker
Exhale longer than your inhale. And imagine yourself on a path. It could be anywhere.
00:01:53
Speaker
But in your mind's eye, start walking spiritual gifts that God has given you throughout your life.
00:02:11
Speaker
Perhaps it is an important person who helped form you spiritually, who shared their faith and walked alongside of you as you were developing your faith. Maybe it's a place, maybe it's a church that was instrumental in forming your faith.
00:02:38
Speaker
could be a combination of all kinds of things. But as you think about all of the ways God has blessed you in your spiritual formation, I want you to place in your mind's eye, markers on this path, like, um,
00:03:00
Speaker
Maybe it's a statue of a person, or maybe it's an image of this church, or maybe it's an image of a particular Bible passage that really helped you understand God better. Maybe it's a baptismal font where you got baptized.
00:03:27
Speaker
or a confirmation gown that marked your decision to become full-fledged member of a church.
Reflect on Personal Relationships
00:03:38
Speaker
We're just going to take a few moments as you consider all of the ways God has blessed you spiritually.
00:03:48
Speaker
Be a cross that marks Jesus' love and sacrifice for you.
00:03:57
Speaker
or trip that you took where you experienced God in a new way, whatever it is, in your mind's eye, just place some images along this path.
00:04:15
Speaker
Times when you grew spiritually, people that helped you grow spiritually, Now turn around and look at those markers that you placed along your path. And notice how God was providing exactly what you needed when you needed it on your journey to bring you closer to Him.
00:04:46
Speaker
Thank you, Heavenly Father.
00:04:51
Speaker
always providing a way for us to know you better. Help us to open our eyes to see those opportunities more and more each and every day. But today we simply give thanks for all that you have done for us and all of the ways that you're continuing to write our story.
00:05:15
Speaker
And now you can continue walking your path and consider your family and your friends, the people that God has placed in your life to live this daily life, the ups and the downs with you. As you walk, place a picture of them or an image of them on your
00:05:46
Speaker
And as you do in your mind's eye, say thank you to each person.
00:05:55
Speaker
Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being there when I needed you. Thank you for going the extra mile when you didn't have to. Thank you for choosing to love me well.
00:06:13
Speaker
Don't worry about remembering every person. You can come back to this path anytime you choose and you can walk
00:06:30
Speaker
Now turn around and look at all those people path behind you. Each and every one of those individuals is a gift from God.
00:06:43
Speaker
And it is good and right to give Him thanks for the people that He places in our lives. And it is good and right to thank the people individually.
00:07:01
Speaker
You thank them in this meditation, but you can also thank them in everyday life. Now let's turn around and continue walking our path.
Thankful for Physical Blessings
00:07:11
Speaker
And this time,
00:07:15
Speaker
Ask God to bring to mind all of the physical blessings that He gives us. Our homes, cars to get us to and from.
00:07:40
Speaker
There's no meditation long enough to
00:07:44
Speaker
include every single one. So for now, just place a few that come to mind on your path, all of the ways that God gives you to do life in this world, him for those gifts because they are gifts from him. All we have belongs to God our Father. He is the provider. Turn around and look at all of the physical ways that God has blessed you.
00:08:26
Speaker
Beyond measure, even in times when it felt like there weren't enough resources to make it through, see how he made a way.
Trusting in God's Provision
00:08:42
Speaker
Now, as we continue this last part of our journey, we're going to think about the future. And we don't have any markers to place on our path because we don't know what the future holds, but we can imagine based on what's behind us and how God has immensely blessed us spiritually through our relationships.
00:09:13
Speaker
and through the material things of this world, through nature. We can imagine and we know that He is faithful and that He keeps His promises and that He will continue to be faithful as we walk into the unknown. And so here, I want you to place any fears that you have about the future.
00:09:39
Speaker
What fears have you been holding on to and asking, what if? What will I do when?
00:09:54
Speaker
And we're going to lay those fears down
00:10:06
Speaker
And in thanksgiving, know that God, who is the creator of all and who loves you more than we can comprehend, that He is more than capable of handling those fears that you have about your future and for continuing to provide for you as you continue to walk your path of life.
00:10:35
Speaker
Now you can turn around and look behind you and you'll see your fears that you laid down. You'll see your material blessings and the blessings of nature of this world. You'll see the important relationships that God has given you.
00:10:57
Speaker
and Most importantly, you will see the spiritual gifts that He has given you.
Spiritual Gifts through Christ
00:11:05
Speaker
Forgiveness of salvation of eternal life with Him and of the opportunity to walk hand in hand with Him every day through this life.
00:11:23
Speaker
from John chapter one, verse 16.
00:11:30
Speaker
For out of his fullness, the superabundance of his grace and truth, we have all received grace upon grace, spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor and gift heaped upon gift.
00:11:47
Speaker
or the law was given through Moses, but grace, the unearned, undeserved favor of God, and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God, His essence, His divine nature. At any time, the one and only begotten God, that is the unique Son, who is in the intimate presence of the Father. He has explained Him. Jesus showed us God.
00:12:18
Speaker
and interpreted and revealed the awesome wonder of the Father.
Reflecting on Jesus this Thanksgiving
00:12:25
Speaker
So this Thanksgiving season, I hope this meditation helped you to pause and reflect on all the ways that you have been blessed, but most of all to ponder the amazing blessing of God sending his son.
00:12:41
Speaker
to walk on this earth, to show us the nature of God, to show us in human form who God is, what He values, who He values, what He loves, how He loves. And I pray that as you go into Christmas and into the new year, that you will carry the gift of these blessings with you in your heart. And any time You're feeling overwhelmed or sorrowed about something in your life. You can return to this path that you created in your mind with Jesus and you can add new blessings and you can reflect on the old ones and you can give thanks because when we give thanks, we are
00:13:37
Speaker
God, our Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus, His Holy Spirit lives in us as His followers. Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Be still.