How to Make It Missional: Gratitude That Impacts Lives
It’s almost Thanksgiving, and maybe this year you’re just trying to make it through. Trying to smile through the “fixings” and the feasting while something feels empty inside.
Maybe everything is right on the surface but stress is eating at your inner calm. Or you’re grieving a shift, an unwelcome season, a spot empty around your table. Perhaps the budget simply can’t cover the holiday spread you envisioned on your table.
Can I reach a hand right through your screen—a hand to steady yours right now?
You might not be able to see how yet, but you will make it through. How do I know? Because I know the God who won’t let go of you.
I know that at this very moment, He’s giving thanks for you. If Jesus were seated at your table on Thanksgiving, and you were going around saying one thing you’re grateful for, He’d lock eyes with you and say, “It’s you. It’s you I can’t stop thinking about. It’s you who squeezes My heart. It’s you I’d give everything for.”
I know that at this very moment, He’s giving thanks for you. If Jesus were seated at your table on Thanksgiving, and you were going around saying one thing you’re grateful for, He’d lock eyes with you and say, “It’s you. It’s you I can’t stop thinking about. It’s you who squeezes My heart. It’s you I’d give everything for.”
And in that holy swell of silence, you’d let His words settle down into those places where you’re hurting or afraid or feeling alone. Ancient promises would wrap you up in an embrace:
He will feed His fold like a shepherd;
He will gather together His lambs—the weak and the wobbly ones—into His arms.
He will carry them close to His bosom,
and tenderly lead like a shepherd the mother of her lambs.
So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, help you.
I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.
And right there, in the middle of the meal, you’d begin to heal.
The Equation God Has in Mind
That’s always the way of Jesus. To fill us first so that we can spill over and point others to Him. We can’t overflow with what we don’t know down to our bone marrow.
So He offers us the fullness of Himself:
Living Water to quench our deepest thirst—then ripple out beyond us.
Bread of Life to nourish the ache in our souls–then invite others “to taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8, NIV).
Words “sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:10) straight from the Word, Jesus, first for us—then to spill into our speech so that we can give others a glimpse of God.
When we’re weary and just trying to make it through ourselves, it might seem we don’t have bandwidth to help anyone else. But it’s a different sort of equation God has in mind. One that multiplies, not subtracts, when we share Him with others.
Imagine your favorite mug in your hand. If God were your server, He’d fill your mug just below the brim. When it gets low, He’d refill.
But God isn’t just a server paying attention to you for an hour. He is the Greatest Servant of All who pays utmost attention to you every single hour.
When He fills your cup, it spills over. It’s always full when it’s brimming over.
He serves you now as He did on the cross—with every last ounce of His care and affection. With every heavy breath and sweat-shed drop of blood. With all of Him.
All of Him is wildly more than you can contain.
All of Him never, ever runs out.
Make it Missional
This week of Thanksgiving, this end of a month we give extra space to gratitude, is full of invitation.
Will you come and drink?
Will you taste and know?
Will you savor and share?
Bring your hurts to Jesus and let Him heal you.
Bring your emptiness to Jesus and let Him fill you.
Come with fists unclentched and softened heart. Come needy. Come expectant.
Come, come, like a pitcher with no lid. Let Him fill you until it streams down the sides and ripples right into other people.
The gratitude we’ve been practicing saying aloud, and online, and in everyday life conversations builds to this: the mission pulsing in the great heart of God.
It’s us. And it’s the people around us and around the world. All of us. Every last one of us.
That who He’s after. That’s who He wants to know and heal and embrace.
What’s our role? To be held. To be chosen. To be loved. And then to let our deepest gratitude spill over no matter where we are.
Perhaps you know God because someone else’s gratitude for what God did for them leaked all over you. Perhaps she was still healing or he was still learning to believe. But that didn’t stop them from sincerely sharing where God was restoring, redeeming, and meeting them.
It can be our story too. Spill-over gratitude. Hearts so full our eyes leak and our gratitude brims over.
Your Mission This Week
As we enter the last week of the gratitude challenge, take some time to soak in the goodness of God. Linger in the Word. Turn a worship song on repeat. Walk outside in the wonder of creation.
Invite God to overwhelm you. Make space for awe. Still your mind. Slow your steps.
Savor. Savor. Savor. With your hands open and your heart open too, so gratitude can rise unrestrained.
Still need the prompts? You can right-click the graphic below to save it to your device, or get a printable download (with a white background) HERE.
Also, if you are finding this (or listening to the podcast) and it’s not early November, please know you can take the challenge any time. Better yet, invite a few friends to join you!
Feel free to send, save, or pin the gratitude challenge prompts.
A Prayer as You Fill With Gratitude
Lord Jesus, come.
Healer, be near.
Savior, overwhelm me
with Your goodness and grace.
Open my eyes.
Awaken my gratitude.
Fill me afresh this week.
May I come and drink.
Taste and know.
Savor and share You.
In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
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