Look For The Bare Necessities

A Journaling and Discussion Devotional by Virginia Wear Kujabi

OUR DAILY BREAD

Today, we will look at some basic needs of life that are met and that we enjoy. If you live in America, the
luxuries of Western abundance often cloud the reality that our basic needs are met. We have access to clean water, shelter, clothes, food, etc.

First, sit in silence for three minutes. Set your timer for three minutes. Breathe deep breathes and try to clear your mind of any sense of rush or hurry. If you feel like you can’t, ask God for help.

Give yourself permission to pause and slow down, even if just for a few moments, and think about what God has done. Before writing anything down, close your eyes for three minutes. Try to clear your mind of whatever plagues you with worry. Push those thoughts aside. Breathe deep, cleansing breaths to help center you for a few moments of thanksgiving. Again, don’t try to change or control your breaths. Simply observe your breaths. Notice the feeling of your lungs filling with air. If you are sitting where there is back support, pull your shoulders back and press shoulder blades to the back of chair. Focus on feeling the back of your body.
Feel the back of you rib cage move as your lungs fill with air. Notice how it moves when you exhale air. If thoughts or words pop into your mind, gently nudge them out. Try to clear all thoughts so you are open to be filled with words from your loving, heavenly Father.

After sitting in silence for three minutes ask God to remind you of what He has done in your life lately. There may be huge milestones in your past. Those are great if you want to say thank you. But today ask God to bring to mind something that He has done in your life recently, perhaps a gift you didn’t notice previously.

Next, ask God to show you answers to these questions:

What needs of mine are being met?
Do I have access to clean drinking water?
Did I enjoy running water for a bath or shower?
Am I wearing clothes?
When I flipped on a light switch, did I have power to light the room?
If I were to open my refrigerator and pantry, what would I see? (List Everything)

Take a few moments to write down all the needs that are met in your life today.
Write out the answers to the above questions and at least five basic needs in my life:

Next, thank God for meeting all your needs according to His riches in glory. Read what you wrote above aloud as a prayer of thanksgiving. Start with these words and then fill in your responses from above:

Thank you, God, for all the needs in my life that you provide.
I give you thanks for water, food, my housing, etc.

A BREAKTHROUGH WITH GRATITUDE

In the book In Everything Give Thanks: A Guide to Transformational Gratitude, I share about a breakthrough that came for me when someone told me I was not grateful and that was very
concerning.

For me, the breakthrough came when I started to give thanks as a disciple. I didn’t necessarily feel grateful. In fact, I felt very ungrateful. I was wounded and disappointed. The “formula Christianity” I had been sold wasn’t working out.

Can you identify areas of your life that aren’t working out the way you want? Where do you feel pain and disappointment? Will you write about that in the space below?

Even if you don’t feel grateful today, can you say thank you to God? Write out your own thanks or you can copy mine.

Thank You Father.
Thank you, Son.
Thank you, Holy Spirit.
Today I do not feel grateful, but I want to say thank you!

Learn more about Virginia Wear Kujabi at virginiawear.com.