2016 Dubai Retreat | Overflowing with Thanksgiving

Today we had to say goodbye to the global workers. It was hard and filled with lots of emotions, but we soaked in a precious time of worship together and prayed over each of our women individually within our small groups. It’s quite amazing and beautiful that in three short days you can form such sweet, new friendships. There were truly Divine appointments specifically for many of us. God was truly at work in all our lives. Women shared how much they felt refreshed and rested and ready to return to their assignments. One global worker mentioned she didn’t realize how depleted she was until she arrived here and the Lord began pouring into her.

Our last session from our Thrive speaker focused on being overfilled with thanksgiving. In Colossians 2:7, Paul is teaching to us as faithful sisters in Christ, that we need to allow our roots to grow down into Christ and let our lives be built upon Him. That will strengthen our faith and we will begin to overflow with thanksgiving. We need to examine our hearts and see what our hearts are filled with. I took some time to examine my heart, and I must confess it isn’t quite overflowing with thankfulness because I’ve realized I’ve allowed fear, and envy to take up space in my heart.

We can get so caught up in comparing ourselves to others. We might think another’s spiritual gift is better than ours, or often times we can become judgmental of one another. It’s often a lack of thankfulness in our own hearts that lead to that.

Global workers often feel division within their teams. They often don’t have a safe person to share their struggles with, and sometimes they even feel judged even within their own organizations. It’s tough to serve and work like this.

I love what our speaker Sue said:
“What if I live my life treasuring Jesus more than anything else in the world?”

There is not one person or anything in the entire world that would allow me to overflow with thanksgiving, because people will always let me down and anything in this world is only temporary. Yet Jesus is forever. He is good. He will not let us down, and his steadfast love for us endures forever.

My prayer is that the Lord would  go before each and every one of these women as they return home. May He allow hearts to be examined so that their hearts will be so filled with Jesus’ love, overflowing with His thankfulness.

As for myself, I need to intently remind myself it’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus!

Who can compare to You, my Lord?

©2016 Thrive.