Giving Thanks and Remaining Stewards of God’s Love
2 Corinthians 4:15
All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. (NIV)
When we broke bread and celebrated with family in our respective Thanksgiving celebrations yesterday, we gave thanks for a lot of things. We always praise the food—from grandma’s pies to the perfectly juicy turkey—and we always show gratitude for family arriving safely from all over the country. We pray at the table together, and we ask God to bless everyone at that table. As stewards of His love, we truly wish, in those moments, that our loved ones feel what we do and believe what we do in terms of our faith and our commitment to God and His bounty.
I trust in my congregation and in their ability to wear the Armor of God and to advocate for Him constantly. I trust my congregation to keep the church doing the good that we do in the community through the contributions of time, money, and faith daily as we move forward into the end of this year and toward the beginning of next. My stewards of faith and fellowship are strong, and I encourage everyone to tap into that feeling of thanks and that strong sense of God and our commitment to Him. We felt it at the table when food was presented to us and when the comfort of family and friends surrounded us, and we can feel it again even when we feel put upon, called to action, or asked to step outside the box to help now and then. We can feel it when we pray on our own, in reflection of this blessed weekend, and while we worship among familiar faces. We can tap into our reserves, our sense of commitment, and our true need to give of ourselves this season and send that energy, that faith, and that love to others.
Some of us feel that we need to give monetarily to the church. Some of us feel like we need to see what the inside of a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter looks like. However, we all know that giving thanks starts at home—in our places of worship, our homes, and our communities. We are the stewards of God’s love. We have to be active in our show of thanks to Him and in our abilities to give His love and assistance to others.
