Devo for 11/16/2025 Service - Message by Pastor Clint
Pastor Clint started a new sermon series titled “With Thankful Hearts.” He took the sermon title from Paul's encouragement to the people of Colossae:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:15-17
Paul always pushed people to be thankful for what God has done for them, and he demonstrated this in his writing and speaking, openly proclaiming his thankfulness. Pastor Clint made this statement that, I believe, sums up how Paul lived:
“A thankful heart rejects the ‘I deserve better’ mentality and embraces the ‘I have been given so much’ perspective”
How many times do we fall into the trap of looking at what we didn’t get and forget about what we have received and should be thankful for? Satan loves it when we fall for that trap, because then he can pour on the lies and get us in a position of wanting more and demanding more. It is hard to be thankful when we are always looking for what WE think we deserve.
There is a very easy way to overcome this, and it involves our testimony. Our testimony is one of the most powerful tools we have in our toolbox to highlight areas of our lives that will bring gratitude and thankfulness. Our testimony is remembering where we once were, and glorifying what God did to remove us from that place. This could be our salvation story, a story of overcoming addiction, repenting from a crippling sin, etc.
In Revelation 12, we read that we have overcome the enemy by the “blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” David Guzik describes in his commentary the power our testimony has over satan:
“The word of their testimony overcomes satan’s deception. Knowing and remembering the work of God in their life protects them against satan’s deceptions. As faithful witnesses…they know what they have seen and heard and experienced from God, they cannot be deceived by satan’s lies telling them it isn’t true.”
Our thankfulness and gratitude get overshadowed when we start believing lies from the enemy, and when we start looking more at what we want than what we have been given.
Our testimony can restore an ungrateful heart and help us to have an “I have been given so much” perspective!
I encourage you to spend time reflecting on your testimony of what God has done in your life, and write it down!
Don’t forget to invite God into your day!
Topic for Study
Thankfulness
Ephesians 5:20
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Psalm 100
November Memory Verse:
Proverbs 12:15
“A fool's way is right in his own eyes, but whoever listens to counsel is wise.”