An Open Letter to God

Eli

Somewere on Earth

By way of the internet

God

The City of the Living God

Mount Zion

Heavenly Jerusalem

God,

Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Greetings from earth, I thank You that I am able to enjoy your creation for another day. How are you? How is Lord Jesus? I thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Your Spirit, that dwells within me.

It seems silly to pray that this letter reaches you well, for you can hear even my thoughts. For an all powerful God it is entirely true, that this has reached you as soon as the words have been typed. Still it is the sentiment that counts. I hope that this letter finds You, that You may know I was concerned about and cared enough about You that I wrote a letter.

Over the past few days You have challenged me to study the topic of thanksgiving. At first glance it seemed entirely simple: remember to say thank You to God. Yet as I continued on this journey, on day 1 I felt convicted that I had grossly underestimated my ingratitude. Yet, hopeful because of Your love, grace and mercy, and indeed my love for You, that I could rectify that swiftly. On day 2, I felt like I had failed to utilise the power of thanksgiving the very day after you had taught me, yet taught me about giving thanks to you all the same.

The lesson? That giving thanks to You is as individual as our relationship with You. So on day 3, another day when I had planned to write a post, for the benefit of others, of all the ways you could show your thanks to God, I am stuck again. I understand that we can sing hymns, praise, attend worship services and so on, but that just seems so....impersonal. In addition, singing simply is not a gift I have.

In prayers and meditation to You it seemed one word kept coming back relationship.

The word "thanks" seems insufficient somehow, and the more I meditated the more I wanted my thanks to become an expression of gratitude, from an utterance to an action.

Faith requires a living relationship, that we love you. Spurn routine in favour of that which is heartfelt, and it certainly feels routine simply saying thanks at the beginning of a prayer. In the flesh we say things like "what do you get someone who has everything?". Indeed, what can I give to You God that You do not already have? For the world and everything in it belongs to You.

If you know someone intimately, the solution is to give them something from you. Uniquely yours, that you may show them they are in your thoughts, and you have taken the time to give them something specific to them. To me this is one of the deepest forms of gratitude, that whatever your resources you cared enough to be deeply considerate of them as a person. In other words, it is a gift that can only be given by you to them. A personal expression of gratitude.

So I am hoping that You help me grow in relationship with You. That my thanks can grow from thanking You for the things You have done for me, to thanking you with true reverance for who You are because I know You. I am learning that this walk by faith was perhaps called a "walk" on purpose. It is not a sprint. I have a lot to learn.

I look forward to hearing from You, and that all is well. Please pass on my sincerest thanks to Lord Jesus for what He did on the cross.

Yours faithfully,
Eli