Call me crazy, but my favorite cookies are the chocolate chip peanut butter deliciously yummy ones I buy at Wal-Mart that are one of the highlights of my days being on the road for Jesus with my beloved special needs ministry dogs. It dawned on me one day after popping a big bite of one into my mouth that there are many reasons I should be thankful to the Lord for these cookies. And, yes, whether or not you’re a cookie eater, I believe there is a message for you in this.
First, I have had a decades long battle with an eating disorder and it is miraculous I desire to eat abundantly now rather than restrict my food and starve myself as I did on and for years. Second, I am blessed God has healed a digestion issue I had whereby I can eat the cookies without any problems with my stomach. Third, I am so thankful to God He blesses me with money I can use to buy the cookies along with the rest of the food I eat. Fourth, I am thankful that He gives me the self-control to eat usually one cookie a day and perhaps another treat rather than mass amounts of sugar as I once did. Fifth, I am so blessed God has given me something to enjoy in a life that is mostly very intense given my personal history and struggles coupled with the troubles of this world combined with the extreme seriousness of the ministry work I do.
So what is the message in all this? Is it about cookies? No! It’s about being thankful to God for His love and care for us and the blessings He bestows upon us. It’s also about expressing our love to Him in part in our thanksgiving to Him. It’s also about how far short I still fall in being thankful and expressing my thanksgiving. It’s about not overlooking God’s blessings and taking them for granted. And it’s about enjoying God’s blessings.
I didn’t know when I started writing this message all the Lord would place on my heart to share with you and how He would use this message to inspire and encourage me to grow in all this. How thankful, yes, how thankful I am for this message and all the Lord has brought forth through it – and for my cookies! Hope you’re blessed, inspired, and encouraged in reading it!
Dear Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your goodness, for all your blessings, for cookies, for this message, for my readers, for never giving up on me, for growing me, for growing us, and please, dear Father, teach us and grow us in your ways, forgive us when we fall short, please be merciful with us, teach us to please and delight you in all things, and thank you for all you give us to enjoy despite the trials of this life, oh Lord, AMEN!
“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:” Psalms 103:1-2 KJV
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” Psalms 100:4 KJV