You are my God, and I give thanks to You;

You are my God, I extol You.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

—Psalm 118:28-29

This morning, we’re keeping things simple. In Psalm 118, the psalmist gives us a wonderful example to follow as we approach the holiday season. He thanks God for who He is. Normally when we approach this season of gratitude, I hear people explaining how they are thankful for their circumstances, their health, for another good year, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I believe we should be thankful for the ways God has blessed us, and this time of year is a great time to focus on that. 

But what if the biggest blessing God has given us is who He is? That’s our focus for this morning. Just remembering who God is and reflecting in gratitude on His character.

Love—God is love. I love that this statement is a fact instead of a metaphor. Most of the time when you say that one thing is another, you’re dealing with a comparison, but not so with God. He is the definition and source of love.

If you’ve read many of my devotions, you may have heard me talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a system for ranking all human needs in order of urgency. The first two needs are physical—we need to know that we’re not going to starve, freeze, overheat, or be harmed before anything else—but as soon as we’re sure we’re safe, you know what we start looking for? Love. Unconditional love. 

Thank You, Elohim Chasdi (God of Lovingkindness), for being so generous with the love we so deeply need!

Joy—Joy is such a blessing, not because it’s fun, but because it’s not tied to circumstances like happiness is. Not only that, but it’s also so much fuller, deeper, wider, higher than happiness. If happiness is black and white, joy is technicolor. And it’s this technicolor, evergreen joy that God offers us when we step into a relationship with Him. 

Thank You, El Simchath Gili (God My Exceeding Joy), for offering us such deep and abiding joy in You!

Peace—Shalom is one of my favorite Hebrew words. It’s translated as peace in English, but there’s so much lost in translation. It’s not just the absence of conflict or the feeling we get when we get to sit in a quiet setting. It refers to completion and wholeness and the calm confidence that often accompanies the knowledge that you lack nothing of import.

Thank You, Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace), for making us whole through the sacrifice on the cross and the resurrection!

Patience—I once saw a video of a shepherd pulling a sheep out of a ditch it was stuck in. As soon as the sheep was free, it took two great bounds and dove headfirst back into the same ditch. I don’t know what that shepherd did in response, but I know I’ve done the spiritual equivalent of jumping right back into the ditch many times. And the Good Shepherd hasn’t given up on me yet.

Thank You, Jehovah Rohi (The Lord My Shepherd), for never giving up on our hard-headed selves!

Kindness—Is there anything kinder than helping someone when you know helping them could hurt you? There was some social and physical danger when Jesus ate with sinners and healed people with contagious diseases, but we get to see exactly how dangerous it was to save us on the cross. 

Thank You, Elohim Ozer Li (God My Help), for the kindness of being willing to sacrifice so much to save us!

Goodness—As a writer, I don’t like the word good. It’s too bland and doesn’t communicate enough, but when it comes to God, other words seem to fall short. Especially when I think about how intimately God knows and loves me. I find it so humbling that God is a God who genuinely sees us. Our likes, our dislikes, our strengths, our deepest darkest failures, and He still loves us.

Thank You, El Roi (God Who Sees Me), for caring enough to look in our direction, and even more for seeing all of us without turning away or rejecting us!

Faithfulness—Faithfulness is what secures the love we so desperately need. It’s a form of protection because it makes the loving relationship safe for us to invest in without fear, which is probably why the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” For love to be perfect, it has to be faithful, remaining steadfast through the darkest seasons.

Thank You, El Emunah (The Faithful God), that You’ve always been faithful. You’ve never stopped loving us, no matter how rebellious we are!

Gentleness—To think of gentleness as being the manner in which the Almighty god approaches us is astounding. He has all the strength, all the power, and given how we’ve treated Him, it would make sense that there’d be some smiting happening. But that’s not how He approaches us. Instead, He’s gentle with us. Healing our hearts and patiently teaching His hard-headed children.

Thank You, Jehovah Rophe (The Lord Our Healer), for gently healing the wounds we cause ourselves with our rebellion against You!

Self-control—While we can only ever expect to control ourselves, God has control over everything. He is always working for the good of His children, and because of this truth, we can have peace and be confident and calm no matter what we’re walking through.

Thank You, El Sali (God My Rock), for giving us a solid foundation that can help us weather life’s storms.

You are so good to us, Lord. In Jesus’s name, we thank You for all of this. Amen.