Listen

“Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith?”

Matthew 6:27-30

Think

This Thanksgiving week, we discover in the scriptures a recipe for cultivating a life of gratitude…

Ingredient #2: Trust

Our passage begins with a poignant question, “Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?” When people are worried, anxious, stressed, angry, or in pain they tend to grit their teeth, tighten their muscles, and clench their fists. It’s a natural reaction, a grasp for control in a situation that feels uncontrollable. But it’s not who Jesus calls us to be. Trying to control the world around us, grasping so tightly to people and possessions until our knuckles turn white... is not a position of trust. It may give us the illusion of comfort – but only an illusion.

Like a plant reaching for the sun, the world around us cannot grow into what God has created it to be if we keep it clenched safely in our hands. Giving God control is hard, but trust and gratitude go hand in hand. When we give God control and we trust God with everything, our eyes become clear, and we can finally see God’s mighty hand at work all around us.

Kelli Kirksey

Pray

Constant God, thank you for being trustworthy.

I pray that I may be able to open my hands, giving you control of my life and trusting you with all that I have.

Amen.

Go

From the corners of my deepest shame
The empty places where I’ve worn your name
Show me the love I say I believe

Oh, help me to lay it down
Oh, Lord I lay it down

Lauren Daigle in “Once and for All” (2015)