Casandra Martin

The Christmas season seems ramped up with noise. The usual busy bustle of our lives is magnified by the additional pressures of being jolly, generous, and full of holiday spirit. We love this time of year, but it is noisy and exhausting. There is special food to cook, shopping to do, bows to tie, and lights to hang. Add in the jingle bells, festive parties, and ho-ho-ho’s and it is easy to go through the whole season with the volume turned up.

I long for this Christmas season to be more than a whirlwind of activity. I want it to be a time to give myself more fully to God. One of the first gifts that I need to bring to Him is my determination to be quiet in His presence. To take a few minutes each day and commit myself to stillness.

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” – Psalm 37:7a

“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10a

“But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” – Habakkuk 2:20

These aren’t suggestions. They are not meant as friendly devotional advice. Being quiet and still is foundational to living a life that is fully connected to God. Being still is about more than vegging out in front of the television. When we are still before the Lord, we make the humble move to step into a wider, richer, heaven-infused life. Choosing stillness opens our minds to wisdom and knowledge that is lost when I give in to overwhelming busyness. I miss God when all I do is go, go, go. Being quiet allows our souls to acknowledge who God is, where He stands in our lives, and the hold He has on our hearts. The commercials tell me to “shop, shop, shop.” God tells me that the best gift I can give Him is to “stop, stop, stop.”

My Jesus Resolution today is to give God the gift of my quietness. When I choose stillness, I am choosing to sacrifice my own activity, my own agenda, and my own pace in order to move into a moment entirely filled with God. It opens my eyes, softens my heart, and adjusts the flow of my soul. I am going to commit three minutes today to being still and quiet. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But try it. Today I am going to turn off the music, the phone, the computer, and the television. I am going to set down the lists, the stress, and the expectations and give three minutes entirely to being quiet with God. I wonder how a God who fills eternity will use three minutes set aside to honor Him through quietness.

The bathtub invasion has started. During the month of December, my bathtub is transformed from a place to get to wet to storage facilities for the Christmas elves. It holds mysteriously shaped packages, crumpled-closed bags, and the lists and plans for the gift-giving season. It is kind of fun to watch the bathtub fill up with goodies. Each gift represents time, thought, creativity, and love invested in the recipient.

As the month of December takes off, I want the growing pile of gifts in the bathtub to teach me how to give more and more of myself to God. Relationships are built on giving. We just spent Thanksgiving remembering how many gifts God has poured into our lives. The only gift that I have to give back to Him is myself. Even that is His, but He accepts what I give Him and uses it to draw me closer to His heart.

“A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.” – Proverbs 18:16

If I am honest, this is what I want most for Christmas this year – more of the presence of God. I want less stress, more peace. Less worry, more joy. Less selfishness, more grace. Less being frantic, more being friends. Being deliberate about giving Him the gift of myself stretches my heart, opens my eyes, and ushers me into the presence of the Great One.

My Jesus Resolution today is to look for another kind of gift to give. In the midst of all the shopping, bows, paper, and lights, I would like to spend this time together exploring what we can give to God during this season of gifts. My heart is what God wants most of all. He longs for my life to shine and sparkle with His glory. Perhaps this kind of giving has the power to transform what is in the bathtub into gifts full of the thing I really want to give to my family and friends – a deeper, more abiding sense of His presence.

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” – Psalm 118:1

This comes to you with a prayer that Thanksgiving has been a day of joy, peace, and fullness. It is a day to reflect on all of the blessings that fill our lives and to count the good things which bring smiles to our faces and a warm feeling to our hearts. It is easy to overflow with gratitude when our lives overflow with bounty and beauty.

Not everyone had such a happy day. Some days find it hard to trace thanksgiving around the edges of hurt, pain, disappointment, or loneliness. Some days find us reeling, unable to find sure footing as our world slips and shakes. Health struggles, money problems, job stresses, and troubled relationships bring in the dark clouds of worry and fear. Counting blessings is tough when you are just trying to keep your head above water.

We all face those days. Maybe today. Perhaps tomorrow. But they come. Sometimes they sneak in and take us by surprise. Other times they hit with a ferocity that takes our breath away. That is why this verse in Psalm 118 is so precious. Our ability to be grateful doesn’t depend on our circumstances, but on God’s presence in our lives.When we can’t find anything else to be thankful for, we can be thankful that God is good. His character is unchanging. His heart is constant. Because of that goodness, His love is steadfast and enduring. Even in the most agonizing circumstances, the darkest days, and amidst the heaviest burdens, God’s love doesn’t go anywhere. It continues to surround you, lift you up, hold you close, and draw you near.

My Jesus Resolution today is to give thanks no matter what. Some days are hard. Those aren’t the days to skip thanksgiving. Those are the days when my heart most needs to count His blessings. It reminds me of who is in control, who is my anchor, and who will never leave me alone. The cross stands as God’s testimony to His steadfast, enduring, unshakable, nonnegotiable love. It stands silently on a hill reminding me that God is good, God is for me, God understands, and God loves me no matter what.

“Thanksgiving is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

For many, thanksgiving is a day, a meal, and perhaps a few words. For Christians, it is so much more. Thanksgiving is a way of living that both sees and proclaims the presence of God in the everyday.

What does a life of gratitude look like? In very practical terms, how will my life look different if I practice regular, daily, deliberate thanksgiving?

– There would be less worry, and more worship.

– There would be less panic, and more praise.

– There would be less independence, and more trust.

– There would be less stress, and more surrender.

– There would be less whining, and more waiting.

– There would be less jitters, and more joy.

– There would be less selfishness, and more service.

– There would be less complaining, and more celebrating.

– There would be less hurry, and more holiness.

– There would be less grumbling, and more grace.

– There would be less keeping score, and more keeping watch.

– There would be less tantrums, and more transformation.

My Jesus Resolution today is to live my gratitude. The list above is pretty sobering for me. The “less” list is a pretty honest snapshot of some of my days. I don’t want those things to define me, but they tend to be my default. I can go through whole days, weeks, even seasons that are painted with the “less” brush. God didn’t promise me a “less” life. God always stands ready to pour “more” into my days. The “more” list is who I want to be. The “more” list is who God intends for me to be when I allow my heart, mind, and soul be saturated with gratitude.

Seventh grade science requires a strong stomach. In seventh grade, we were introduced to microscopes. Armed with the ability to look closely at things that we had not paid much attention to before, we clustered in small groups around the microscope and examined everything. Things came out of people’s pockets, were scraped off the floor, picked out of noses, and pulled from the trash and stuck under the lens to be scrutinized by inquiring seventh grade minds. Infinitesimal details became giant realities as we enlarged our treasures. Magnification gave us a whole new way to see the world.

“I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” – Psalm 69:30

The act of thanksgiving is a magnifier. It changes the way we see. Our days can be busy, hectic, stressful, and overwhelming. When they are, the pressures of this world loom large. They cast long shadows, suffocating our souls in subtle ways. Cares seem bigger. Hurts are harder to bear. Loneliness grabs us, burrowing in next to fear and worry in our hearts. When we speak our gratitude, it magnifies God. It adjusts our perspective. It allows us to see the details differently. It helps us examine the pieces of our lives, realigning the realities with the truth of His goodness. Things that seemed huge and overwhelming are put in their proper context when we magnify the ways God pours Himself into our days.

My Jesus Resolution today is to pay attention to the way thanksgiving magnifies God. Every choice to be grateful has the power to help me see God more clearly. Today I want to magnify the way that God has worked in the details of my life. I want to see His grace with more clarity, His love with more intensity, His will with more humility, and His holiness with more awe. When God is magnified in me, the world becomes smaller. Its influence has less pull on my heart. I am able to focus more intently on the beauty I often miss when I let the world overshadow the cross.

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. “ – Tecumseh

Learning to be people of gratitude is mostly about retraining our eyes. Thanksgiving is transformation in action. It is the process of looking into the moment and finding God’s fingerprints. Sometimes evidence of His presence is clear, distinct, and unmistakable. Other times, however, find us struggling to trace His goodness in the depth of our difficult days.

Thanksgiving isn’t about spin. It isn’t so much about having a positive, Pollyanna attitude as it is about adjusting our perspective to find the God-markers even when things are rough.

Every time that you live gratitude out loud, you declare three very important truths to the world.

1. God is in control.

2. You are not alone.

3. This isn’t the end of the story.

The practice of thanksgiving cements these three truths deep in our hearts. It allows them to fill us, shape us, move us, and change us. Expressing gratitude today will transform how we face tomorrow. The rough outline of these three truths take on dimension, depth, and deep color as we train our eyes to seek His face.

My Jesus Resolution today is to practice gratitude. Thanksgiving doesn’t come naturally. I am much more prone to whining, complaining, and criticizing than I am to being grateful. Practicing thankfulness is like coming out of a very dark room into the bright light. It takes time for my eyes to adjust, but when they do, the beauty of the world opens up before me.

I love the Thanksgiving season. It is neat to listen to people talk about their blessings, record their gratitude, and, if only for thirty days, recognize that God touches our lives in personal and amazing ways.

This season of gratitude needs to launch us into a lifestyle of gratitude. Thanksgiving is the soil for deep living. It is the mindset that helps us pause rather than panic, worship rather than worry, and stay focused rather than becoming frustrated. Not because difficult things don’t happen, but because gratitude teaches us to trace God’s hand in all of our moments.

I have to admit to being partial to Daniel. His story holds some big headline moments – maintaining his integrity, interpreting a king’s dreams, being thrown into a lion’s den. I want to have that kind of faith – faith that is strong, sure, steady, and surrendered. But that kind of faith didn’t develop haphazardly. Between the big headlines of Daniel’s story, we read the key to Daniel’s focused faith.

“He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” – Daniel 6:10b

Three times a day for a lifetime, Daniel stopped to pray and be thankful. Daniel’s faith was rooted in the habit of gratitude.

My Jesus Resolution today is to develop a thanksgiving habit. What might the impact be on my faith, my family, my work, and my friends if I stopped three times a day and counted my blessings? Quiet, consistent, deliberate gratitude has the power to open our eyes, reshape our hearts, ignite our joy, fuel our courage, and root us in God’s presence. They say that it takes twenty-one days to learn a new habit. Following Daniel’s example adds up to sixty-three times of pausing, praying, and praising. I don’t want thanksgiving to be a season in my life. I want it to be my daily practice. Who wants to start a holy habit with me?

Thanksgiving is more than the casual cataloguing of things that have been given to us. It is the recognition that God stands in the middle of all things. His presence permeates our lives, surrounds our broken hearts, walks with us through deep joys and wrenching sorrows, and declares His truth over and over for every soul willing to listen.

Here are ten things that being thankful are supposed to teach us about the heart of God.

1. Forgiveness is real.

2. Transformation is possible.

3. Love really does conquer all.

4. Hope is irrepressible.

5. The details do matter.

6. Joy is tucked into unexpected places.

7. Goodness is more powerful than we understand.

8. His plan is perfect.

9. His timing is always right.

10. Jesus is always the answer.

My Jesus Resolution today is to be a student of gratitude. Counting my blessings is not merely an exercise in listing what makes me happy, but of declaring how God’s goodness infuses every part of my life. Thanksgiving challenges me to look deeply at my circumstances, relationships, struggles, joys, and experiences and trace the hand of God at every turn. His presence is what ignites joy. His nearness is the catalyst for hallelujahs. My blessings are tailor made for my good and His glory. Each one is designed to open my eyes, stretch my soul, and impact the way I step into the next moment.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Matthew 5:6

 I have thirty Bibles. Those are just the ones downstairs. I didn’t go upstairs to count the Bibles in my kids’ rooms (or maybe I just didn’t want to see the mess). Anyway. That also doesn’t include the electronic Bibles to which I have easy access. Anybody with a phone, tablet, or computer can access literally hundreds of versions of God’s Word with the touch of a button. That is amazing. It should be humbling. Has it made us hungry?

This week I read a beautiful story about a woman with a deep hunger for God’s Word. Living in a village in northern Ghana, the young woman was given by her father in marriage to a man who savagely beat her. She escaped with her two youngest babies to a vocational school that teaches women basic skills they need in order to have a hope of providing for their children.

Every day while these young women are learning how to sew, they listen to an audio Bible and hear the voice of God speaking love and hope into their days. The young woman in the story is so hungry for God’s precious Word that she records it on her cell phone so that she can listen to His truth at night with her children.

I wept. Tears of joy that she is so hungry for God and He is answering her hunger. Tears of shame at my own lack of appetite.

My Jesus Resolution today is to grow a hunger in my soul. I want to crave God. I want to ache to hear His voice. I want to yearn to be in His presence. I want to want nothing less than the words of life. But it is an appetite that I have to feed. It is a hunger that has to be trained to settle for nothing less than the sweetness of His voice. Growing a hunger means emptying my soul of the “junk food” of the world. Today I want to imagine how the eyes of a young woman from Ghana would light up if she got to hold even one of my Bibles. And I want to look just like her.

I love the transparency of children. One way or the other, their honesty both convicts me and inspires me.

Sitting in Bible class on Sunday morning, the first graders were talking about prayer and the power of learning to listen to God. Enthusiastically, each child pointed out a time and place when they could pray. “We can even pray right now!” one child commented. We did, and it was a sweet moment. The conversation then turned to the truth that we need to not only talk to God, but take the time to listen to His word and His voice. With humble and innocent hearts, they discussed the importance of being aware of God’s presence in their day.

One precious little girl was very quiet. Finally, she whispered words that thundered in my soul. “It might be hard to listen to God at Disneyworld.” The other children nodded gravely in agreement. One little boy who visited there this summer declared, “I already had that problem.” I was stunned and humbled. Seven years old and they understand the power the world has to distract us from God.

As adults we tend to think that we can manage the world’s distractions. We believe that we can minimize their impact, blunt their power, or multi-task our way into His presence. Recognizing the times, places, and situations that distract me from God is the first step in developing a focus that will carry me through those things that pull my attention away from Him.

My Jesus Resolution today is to name my distractions. Distractions can take many shapes – worry, busyness, people, pleasure, struggles, or fun. Some distractions are dazzling and promise thrills, relaxation, and satisfaction. Sometimes they show up as dark times or in difficult people. These distractions siphon off our joy, ravage our peace, and make us feel isolated. Whatever their form, naming my distraction loosens its hold on my soul and invites God to transform my eyes and my heart so that I can recognize the presence and power of the King even as I walk through the kingdoms of this world.