Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
 his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

Happy Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for you! 

This holiday is one of my absolute favorites. I love that this day focuses on what we’re thankful for while eating nostalgic food from our childhoods with family and friends.

It’s 4 am here in Mexico. It’s dark and cold outside. I made a cup of coffee quietly so I didn’t wake Aidan up, and then I returned to bed with my Bible to stay warm. And now I’m sitting here, with my pup warming my feet, and my heart is overflowing with gratitude. God is so good and I am so grateful. 

♥ Thank you for being a part of this ministry! Thank you for praying for us, for encouraging us, and for joining us in bringing God’s love and provision to those in need.  I am amazed and so very grateful every single day for what we are able to do together! So many families will wake up this morning thanking God that they are warm and dry, with food in the home for their children, because of your prayers and generosity. Every prayer is vital, and I am so grateful! 

♥ The cliche is true: we are blessed to be a blessing. And even more, we are blessed by being a blessing.  Thank you for joining me in what Jack called God’s Blessing Game with me! It is such a joy to join with you

♥ Thank you for sharing your stories, your lives, and your prayer requests with us. Praying for you and seeing what God is doing in your lives is a huge privilege. This is the best, unexpected part of this ministry for me in the last nine years since Jack went Home. 

The word on my heart for you today is to share just how much you are loved. You are SO loved. Walking arm-in-arm with Jesus for so long, I know how much He longs for you to experience this extravagant love that He gives without reserve or limit—a love you cannot earn and cannot lose.  Whether you are currently on the mountaintop or in the valley, whether you celebrate this day or it’s just another Thursday, I pray for God’s extravagance in your life: extravagant joy, extravagant peace, extravagant blessings, extravagant gratitude, extravagant love. And there’s something about gratitude that opens our hearts to experience more.

Pray with me today:

Father, you are the Good Giver, and we are so grateful to you. We are grateful for your extravagant love and blessings in our lives. You give abundantly without reserve to us. And we give you thanks and praise today and every day. We thank you for your gifts, great and small. We thank you for things unexpected, and things we might take for granted—each breath, each step, each hour we get. We thank you even in the trials we face, for through them, you’ll bring good things, and by them, you’ll form us to be more like you. 

We remember those, like Rathna and her children, who are in the depths of great loss. For those experiencing these trials right now, Lord, we ask for your comfort and your peace. We ask for you to hold them tight in their grief and uncertainty and give them hearts filled with hope even in this. We ask you to be their firm foundation and help them rebuild with blessings abundant. We pray for extravagant provision for them and for you to place little delights all along their path—things they know are your messages of love just for them. And help us to be your hands and feet and presence to those experiencing grief and loss. We pray together in the name of Jesus, Amen. 

 

With abundant love and gratitude,

♥ Samantha

I’ve written these messages since we added the blog to the site! You can read the previous Thanksgiving messages for 2017, 2018, 2019,  2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023