Wednesday

10 Bible Verses of Encouragement about Thanksgiving


We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.

In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage about Thanksgiving








I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in. 

I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.



So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to read and consider about Thanksgiving




1.   Colossians 3 v 16 - 17    

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him”







Such a great 2 verses that cover thankfulness within us and then that thankfulness flowing out to God. 




2.   1 Thessalonians 5 v 16 - 18
 
Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, 

in everything give thanks; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.








This passage is brief and to the point with 3 exhortations to us about things we should do and look it has always been God's will for us to be thankful in everything!





3.   Ephesians 5 v 20 

 giving thanks always and for everything to God


 




Just in case we didn't get the full message in the previous verse this one points out the always as well as in everything - no excuses!





4.   Colossians 2 v 6 - 7

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

 






When we are following Jesus thanksgiving is very important because it part of the process of walking with Him and in faith.





5.   Jonah 2 v 9   


But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving;

  I will pay what I have vowed.   

Salvation is of the Lord.








Sacrifice may be hard for us but we are still instructed to remain thankful in this act of obedience.




6.   1 Chronicles 16 v 34


Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 
for His steadfast love endures forever!






His goodness to us and His love for us should always be on our minds and we must be forever thankful to God for these great attributes.



7.   Philippians 1 v 3 - 4

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,  always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.




We don't just have to thank God for all His attributes but we must remember to thank Him for the others we have along side us in our Christian Walk?





8.   Philippians 4 v 6 - 7


"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

 





So often we can get caught up with the needs of ourselves, family, friends, church and others that we forget to thank God in our prayers but they must not centre around petitions all the time but rather on God and how He is faithful to answer our prayers.





9.   Colossians 3 v 15

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." 




 


Allowing God to give us His peace and rest should bring thankful expressions from us.









10.   2 Corinthians 9 v 15



"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"







We have so many things to be thankful to God for but we must never forget that the greatest of these is the Gift of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die in our place.












Monday

Thankful for More than the Silly Things that Make Me Laugh - Coffee & Conversation



I Love to laugh and giggle and I am so thankful that I have a husband who is full of fun and makes me laugh a lot.




There is only the two of us left at home now.


So you could think our home is quite quiet - which it is, 
but 
there is still normally something to have a laugh about.





You see Fred really does have a good sense of humour and of course after all these years together he knows how to make me laugh.

Like one day when I was standing in the kitchen checking my phone and he suddenly announced he was just going to delete his post (as we call the mail in the UK) and I turned round to see this.





Then there was the day he got excited when his new toy arrived.  
It's a Cajon and he just unpacked it and sat down on it and started drumming on it and singing and was as happy as a kid.





Or one Christmas time when we went for a walk around the grounds of a castle with Jonathan and when Jonathan wanted to take a picture of us from the top of the ruins Fred and I were joking around and acting stupid and giggling our heads off.





But sometimes Fred just has to smile his cute little boy smile at me and I can't help but laugh at him.
It brightens me up at any time.

 Just look at that smile and the twinkle in his eyes.







 Our kids might be grown up but they enjoy a laugh 
and some silly fun too.

Here's Daniel and his dad at Daniel's stag do.






Linda is often referred to as the random one because she just starts talking about whatever comes into her head and she thinks up 
the silliest presents at times.

This pic is when she posted about having had a scarecrow massacre.






Jonathan may be the oldest and everyone thinks "the most serious" 
but he is often on his phone sending silly pics to his friends and his brother & sister.  

This picture below was taken in The Netherlands on a family outing 
quite a few years ago while we were living in Belgium.







Now just in case you think that I am only making fun of my family I can assure you that I do silly things myself (and laugh at myself) - like when our nephew was running with the Olympic Torch and I let myself be caught in a picture running alongside him.  Everyone had a good laugh at that one.






And here I am with two friends doing some Hawaiian dancing at an Hawaiian Themed party we had in our house in Belgium





I hope you laugh at silly things.

I hope you are thankful for bits of fun daily 
and can see the humour and fun and enjoyment 
in things around you.







I believe it is good to laugh and to share fun times with others
 planned and unplanned.

And I believe that God has given us a life and friends and family 
that he wants us to enjoy.

I don't believe that God wants us to be grim and gloomy
 all the time.

I don't believe that as Christians we have to be quiet and serious
 all the time.

Laughter is good for you and having fun is good for you and it is also really good for relationships.


I am thankful to God 
for the good relationships, friends, memories, 
and adventures that I have had

BUT

mostly I am thankful for the relationship I have with God, 
where He cares for me 
and I am constantly learning to leave everything in His hands 
because
I am thankful that 
His ways are best and His timing is best.








Sunday

Memorizing the Bible - Psalm 119 v 11


I could never do it!

          Do what?

Memorize a chapter of one of the Books of the Bible!

          Yeah that's not so easy,  BUT  you can learn a verse of the Bible.






Let's look at a verse from one of the largest books of the Old Testament.

Many people think they could never manage to memorize a whole Psalm or a whole chapter of Scripture.

It is a rather daunting challenge especially if you have never learned any scripture before.

So we of course are not going to attempt to learn the whole book of Psalms or the whole of one Psalm but we will take on the very simple one verse which is 
Psalm 119 v 11 


"Thy Word have I hid in my heart, 
that I might not sin against thee."



So in memorizing this verse we will look at 4 things:
  • Memorising Tips
  • Bible Verse Graphics
  • Some Freebies to help you.









Memorising Tips
If you read the Top 10 Ways to Learn Scripture you will see that I give 10 tips to help in this process but we don't have to use all 10 of them on each verse - just the ones that suit best with the verse.


For Psalm 119 v 11 I'm going to advise using tips 2, 5, 8, & 9 


2.  Write out the verse several times.

Why?  Because the action of  WRITING  helps us learn anything.

The first line below can be written on one line of a page and the last line on the following line.

So you are writing it in two halves just as you would read it when you see it this way because it comes naturally to the ear with the similar rhythm to each line.


"Thy Word have I hid in my heart, 
that I might not sin against thee."


5.  Instruction and the reason why it is good advice.

When we instruct or teach or tell someone (or in this case ourselves) the way to do something or what is good for someone or ourselves we normally give an explanation of why this is a good instruction or teaching or we give the result that has been seen in the past.

The instruction or recommendation here is about hiding God's Word in our hearts which can in one simple way just mean memorizing it but also means to understand it and know it.

The reason why is clearly to be an aid in helping us not to sin.

So if a verse has an instruction or piece of advice it mostly will have the reason why it is a good instruction or good advice and they go hand in hand so we have another help in the memorization process.








8.  Make it easy to see the verse clearly and regularly each day.


This could be by having a bookmark at the verse in your Bible 

but

we cannot have our Bible at hand every moment of the day so if you feel you need frequent readings of the verse like pop-up reminders then do the following:

Get a post-it pad and write the verse out clearly on it then tear off the post-it and stick it on
  • the mirror you will use first thing each morning and last thing each night
  • the front cover of your Bible
  • the front cover of the book you are currently reading
  • the door of the fridge
  • the inside of the door of the cupboard where you go to get your favourite mug for that cup of coffee








9.  Make or use Bible Verse Graphics 

The picture of Psalm 119 v 11 near the start of this post is an example of a Bible Verse Graphic.

A picture with the words written on it clearly.
By making these yourself you will learn as you create them.

or

by using ones made for you that you keep close to hand
(see my freebies)

I post a Bible verse graphic every morning on my
so if you want to be encouraged by a verse each day or have a graphic you can Share to your timeline or Save in Facebook then click through to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and follow the page to see those graphics in your feed each day.


or Colouring Pages

While colouring in a Bible Verse Page you will be spending time around the words and this also helps to learn the verse.


or Word Search Puzzles

While searching for the words of a verse in a puzzle you will be spending time around the words and this also helps to learn the verse.
(see my freebies)


or Phone Screensavers / Wallpaper

What better use of your phone - to keep that verse in front of you each time you go to check your messages.

For this you will need it to be a suitable portrait shape and size so most of the normal verse graphics you see will not suit.


I have a few verses made out for screen savers & you can download them from




I've also prepared a playlist of Short Songs to memorize Scripture on YouTube:



Some Freebies to help you.

For today's verse to help you memorize I have



  • Bible Verse Graphics


  • Word Search Puzzle





each of which can be downloaded HERE 



Don't forget 
that many of my other posts on the blog have bible verse graphics and many of these are also available as free downloads in my


also that's where you will find the phone screen savers for some verses.