This coming Thursday our nation will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately, for many, if not most, it will be a day centered on eating and watching football with little, if any, regard given to thanking God. Let me encourage it to be otherwise with you.
First of all, giving thanks to God is just plain a good thing to do.
Psalms 92:1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
Since it is a good thing to do, thanksgiving will make your life better. The word better is the comparative form of the word good. So if you add something good to your life, you have made your life better than it was before you added that good thing. This is simple logic, but it is profound in its implications.
Secondly, consider this passage as it relates to our subject.
Colossians 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Observe that the believer who is strengthened with all might according to God’s glorious power is a believer who is giving thanks unto the Father. Now to be strengthened with all might, and that according to God’s glorious power, is to be strong in the greatest way that a human being can be strong. Show me a thankful Christian and I will show you a person of strong character. His body may be weak and sickly and his possessions few, but he is strong. Also notice that God’s strength leads to all patience and longsuffering. A strong believer can suffer patiently for a long time and still be thankful. To suffer patiently is to suffer with calmness and composure, to suffer without losing it, as we say. And he can suffer with all patience, that is, with God’s strength he can suffer with all the patience he will need for as long as he needs it. Furthermore, a believer strengthened with God’s strength can suffer with joyfulness. His sufferings do not take anything away from his joy. His joy is full. And that his joy is full is explained by the fact that while suffering he is giving thanks. For thanksgiving is the companion of joy as the following passages show:
Psalms 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psalms 97:12 Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Isaiah 51:3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Jeremiah 30:19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Also consider the following passage as it relates to thanksgiving.
Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
This verse connects being thankful with letting the peace of God rule in our hearts. Ask yourself this question: Is your heart restless, anxious, or fearful? If so, then the peace of God is not ruling in your heart. If this is the case with your heart, check your thanksgiving. Just how thankful are you, that is, how full of thanks are you? If you are thankful, the peace of God will hold sway in your heart. Because, you see, when you are thankful, you are focused on God and His goodness. This puts whatever troubles you have into perspective; it scales them down in size so that they do not loom so largely over you. When this happens, then God’s peace takes over and calms the heart. In other words, it rules or has the commanding influence in the heart.
So let me close by joining the Psalmist in giving you this exhortation:
Psalms 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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