FBC Daily Devotional – November 25, 2021

Thanksgiving in Psalm 103: Steadfast Love and Tender Mercies

Well, Happy Thanksgiving Day to you. I hope you're having a good day. Enjoy some good food today, perhaps. Hopefully some time with family and loved ones and some time around the table, but also some time of giving thanks.

And I hope that you've been doing that all this week, as we have focused even in our devotionals on the sole subject of Thanksgiving. And I trust that as you meditate on things to be grateful for, thankful for, you're looking to the Word.

Let the Word prompt you for some things. And we have looked at, in Psalm 103, so far, three different things. Not forgetting the benefits that God has bestowed upon His people. One of them is, He forgives all of our iniquities.

The second is, He heals all of our diseases. The third one is, He redeems our life from destruction. And then today, today, He says, we can remember the benefit that He, God, crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Now, kind of break that down a little bit, tear that apart a little bit. What do you have to be thankful for today? As you, as you're chewing on a piece of turkey, what do you have to be thankful for?

Well, you can be thankful that the crown you wear, it's not a temporal crown. It's not one that's going to fade away. It's not one that somebody can steal off of your head and kick you off of your throne, if you will.

No, the crown that is, that adorns your life, is the crown of the loving kindness of God. And that word, loving kindness, is, it's really a very important Old Testament term. And it has to do with God's steadfast love and faithfulness to His covenant.

That is, that God is absolutely faithful to the promises, the covenant that He has made with His people. He will not renege on the least of His promises to His people. He is absolutely faithful. And that loving kindness, that that steadfast love, is a crown of your life.

It's something that that will adorn you for eternity. And so not only the loving kindness of God, but His tender mercies, the tender mercies of God. And that has to do with His disposition toward you.

That He is not a harsh, cruel father. As maybe some of us have had in our childhood, growing up years. Fathers who were cruel and mean and hateful. Sad thing. That's the case. And it can give us a distorted view of fatherhood.

But our God, who is our heavenly Father, is not that kind of a father. He's a father marked by tender mercies. And that crowns your head. So you can be grateful today for the kind of father you have. He's a father of steadfast love.

Always faithful and true to His covenant. He's a God of tender mercies. He has a kind, tender disposition toward His children. Be thankful for that today. Another thing to be thankful for that comes up in our reading for today is in Acts chapter 9.

Conversion as a Gracious Work of God

And Acts 9, of course, is the the record of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, became the Apostle Paul. And what strikes me about that conversion of Saul is that clearly conversion is a gracious work of God.

You know, Saul's Saul is an unconverted man. He is hateful toward Christians. And he's, he's persecuting him. He's arresting him, throwing him in jail. He's on his way to Damascus to round up some more and take them back to Jerusalem and imprison them.

And without any request on Saul's part whatsoever, Christ shows up, confronts him. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Convicts him of his sin. And Saul melts in repentance and turning in faith to Christ.

Lord, he says, what will you have me to do? The point I want to get at there is that conversion is a gracious work of God. And it's no wonder in, in that experience of Paul's conversion, it's no wonder that he would later write not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith

And by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. That in itself is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. I mean, just the fact that you have had and I have had the faith to trust Christ for salvation.

It's no credit to me. It's no credit to you. This is, this is God's grace. On this Thanksgiving day, if you know Christ as your savior, if God has saved your soul, then you have much to be thankful for.

And the only reason you can, you are saved today and converted is because God has saved you. Oh, thank him, praise him and thank him for that wonderful gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. That wonderful gift even of the faith to trust Christ and to believe and receive him as your personal savior.

And perhaps you have never, perhaps you've never trusted Christ. Perhaps you're trusting in your works to save you. Isn't going to do it. Isn't going to do it. The Holy Spirit of God may be right now prompting your heart and convicting you that you've been trusting in yourself and relying upon yourself.

And God's spirit is speaking to you and telling you, turn to Christ, call upon him now to save you. That is the grace of God for which you need to be thankful. All right, so we have much to be thankful for today.

Let's give thanks. Our Father and our God, we are grateful today. We are thankful for your steadfast love. We're thankful for your tender mercies. We're thankful for your sovereign grace even in, even in confronting us in our sin, even when we had no interest or desire to turn to Christ for salvation.

You convicted us and you brought us to yourself. You drew us to yourself. By your grace. Oh, thank you, gracious Father, for the gift of God, which is eternal life. Thank you. And we praise you for it today.

And now, oh Lord, I pray give us a wonderful Thanksgiving day with our family, with our loved ones. And if there's someone listening today that is just alone, I pray that you would encourage and comfort them.

And even in that, may they find much to be thankful for. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, do have a wonderful Thanksgiving day. God bless you.