Ann Voskamp - One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces

It all began quite spontaneously, unintentionally. One of those things God grows up in the most unexpected places.

A friend dared me to start counting one thousand things I loved. I took the dare, accepted the challenge, kept track of one thousand things, one thousand gifts a thousand graces on a quiet, unassuming blog. Before I knew it, thankfulness to God began to fully change me.

What I actually found startling! was more daily wonder and surprising beauty than I ever expected. And in a few short years, this daily hunt for Gods grace, His glory, had ushered me into a fuller life. A life of joy! Over the past several years, Ive listed over four thousand gifts and I continue. Once one has begun, has tasted and known He is God, who can stop giving Him glory? Thousands more have begun their own lists in jail cells and by death beds, in third-world slums and by faith alone and its not overstatement to say that giving Him thanks has made me and innumerable others overcomers.

How did all this happen?

A few years ago, I decided to try to live this giving thanks as I believe Jesus did each day, regardless of His circumstances. And what I found was that in giving thanks for each moment and savoring it as bread from His hand, Id find sustenance and the grace of God Himself in it. I wrote a book about this gratitude journey called One Thousand Gifts. I didnt start with any specific steps, but through this intentional, daily practice of giving thanks, I found myself on a transformative journey that affected every aspect of my life including all the broken places. God began to show me the graces, the love gifts, that were right before me, waiting to be noticed, waiting to be received. This easily overlooked stuff, the small and especially the hard became for me a life-giving stream of joy in Him.

Even when I am sometimes impatient or unwilling, when I face conflict and heartache, Ive begun to accept that even the impossible is a possible opportunity to thank God, to experience the goodness and grace of the Giver of all!

There is always only more grace.

And its always more than I expect.

And you? You in the midst, you in the mire, are you too thinking about counting one thousand gifts, about making your life all about joy in Christ, about loving God and enjoying Him forever? There is so much joy in seeing how He uses our simple act of noticing the blessings He bestows all around us to transform our lives and the lives of those we touch.

So here is how I suggest you begin this journey by grace, begin your own gift list, count all the ways He loves you:

Pray. Start with a simple request, making it the refrain of your day: God, open the eyes of my heart. This journey must be Spirit-led, everyday.

Receive. Open your hand to the simple, daily gifts, writing down all the unique and ordinary things you notice, from the grand and obvious to the humble and hidden.

Praise. Praise Him for the unexpected and the unlikely, for the daily and the difficult, and the graces in disguise. The more you count, the more gifts you will see. Do not disdain the small. The moments add up, and we might come to believe it the whole earth is full of His glory!

Beyond that, there is no method or formula. There is simply a willingness to bend to receive, to begin to take note of the daily love God unfurls.

What could be simpler, more glorious, than doing what we were made for?

It could be like this: I found setting a goal of one thousand gifts over a few months beneficial it kept me attending to all the ways He whispers, I love you. Some folks count ten graces a day, others just three a day to total one thousand in a year, while still others spend one day a week intensely, wildly counting, a jarring wide-awake. Whatever you do, the practice is intended to be a way of cultivating a habit, of learning to live praise, to make gratitude and joy your default, to move thanksgiving away from a holiday to a lifestyle that all the days might be holy and set apart for real joy.

These sixty reflections chronicle my discovery, each one like a singular tree in a lush forest of graces. While every journey is unique, my humble prayer is that sharing these glimpses will companion and encourage you in your own prayerful discovery of a lifestyle of Christ-focus and communion. Of how extravagantly God loves you and how desperately you need Him every moment. Most of all, I hope these entries expand your view of the endless and matchless grace of an overflowing God. Just turn to the back of this book, press open that journaling space, and begin your own list of one thousand gifts take the dare to fully live!

Oh, let the gift-hunt begin! God is waiting to reveal so much through your desire to know Him more deeply and completely but His grace is only experienced directly. The most important thing is simply to begin.

May God bless your journey with the greatest gift of all more and more of Himself!

All is grace.