Written by Sara Webb, Young Life Capernaum Initiatives Coordinator for Discipleship and Training
This past spring we created videos that helped us memorize Psalm 100 as a national Capernaum community. Each Monday our Capernaum friends and leaders and staff would get a video emailed to them with the verse and sign language to work on for that week (check out this “Memory verse Monday” video).
One verse stuck out to me more than others as we worked our way through Psalm 100. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving…”
The “with thanksgiving” I have not gotten out of my head.
The visual I got in my head, in this moment of my life, was me walking through the gates dragging my ‘thanksgiving’ along with me. This past 8 months it has been HARD to be thankful.
I then found there are more “with thanksgiving” verses in scripture. There is praying “with thanksgiving” and there is being watchful “with thanksgiving” and coming into His presence “with thanksgiving.”
We are told multiple times in scripture to make sure what we are doing includes us doing it “with thanksgiving.” I am finding “with thanksgiving” is a friend I am not showing up with very often, and when I do I am dragging her along with me.
But what I am also learning is adding thankfulness to even the mundane things in life is filling and life-giving. It creates a feeling of more than enough. It brings joy to places that seem dark and endless. Even when I drag my “with thanksgiving” along with me, I find a gift I was not expecting.
I am often brought back to the book written by Ann Voskamp that helped me understand the power of giving thanks. The words below remind me to not forget to enter into ALL life situations “with thanksgiving” because that is where we also experience God and find joy.
“Jesus gives thanks…and there is more than enough. More than enough. Eucharisteo always precedes the miracle. And who doesn’t need a miracle like that every day? Thanksgiving makes time. The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life—in my life—is lack of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving creates abundance; and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks…it’s giving thanks to God for this moment that multiplies the moments, time made enough. I am thank-full. I am time-full”.
Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2)
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” (Psalm 100:4)
Today I am starting my Monday with thanksgiving. I hope you will too.
If you are struggling to be thankful today, here are some ways you can join in the thankfulness with us…
> Watch and reflect on God’s goodness and faithfulness as Travis from Eastern Ottawa Capernaum does the sign language for Psalm 23 in this video.
> Join us in giving thanks for the work God is doing through Young Life Capernaum here in the Western Great Lakes Region and around the world.
> Check out the “Thankful Thursday” prompts we offered each week this month over on our Instagram page.
