I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Our kids and their families will be with us this year, except for our daughter and her husband in Nashville. They will be with us at Christmas. My wife and I are so blessed. God has given us great kids. Their spouses are amazing. Our two grandchildren are the sweetest on this side of heaven.
We have so much to be thankful for. It’s easy to complain sometimes, especially with all that’s going on in this world. We get our focus away from the good things in life. It was just a short time ago that I spent sixteen days in the hospital. I was in bad shape. They said I was close to dying. That’s hard to admit. You can read about it in my previous blogs. Thank God for His mercy and His healing power. I’m on the road to recovery. This was one thing I remember and find so important. Never take anything for granted. Your health, your family, your marriage, your friends, and your walk with Jesus!
During those sixteen days, I cried about God’s goodness in my life. So much has changed since that time-good things. I’m so thankful for my wife. She truly is my best friend in all the world. She was instrumental in my recovery in so many ways. She handled everything while I was hospitalized. She prayed me through! From sickness to health. From depression to Joy in Jesus. I’m still in the process of getting well and I’m filled with faith. Good days are ahead for both of us. I am so thankful for all the people that were praying for me. From New York State to Pennsylvania, and to Nashville where my daughter lives with her husband. I also want to thank my Church and the people there who were also praying. We need a community of believers to help carry the load. God is a good God! I’ll never stop believing in that! Psalm 27:13 (NKJV) -13 I would have lost heart unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Linda and I pray that you have a thankful Thanksgiving this year. Let us all count our blessings from great to small.
So what about being thankful? Look at Colossians 2:6-7 (NKJV) -6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving in Greek means gratitude, a grateful language. What comes out of our mouths should be grateful language. Our faith abounds or grows through thankfulness. Apostle Paul says that when we pray it should be accompanied by thanksgiving- ( Philippians 4:6 ). Just watch as anxiety, fear, and discouragement washed away, as you lift your hands in thanksgiving. Thankful thinking leads to verbal thanksgiving. He also tells us in Romans 1:21 (KJV) -21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. As believers in Christ, our lives should be characterized by thankfulness! This keeps our hearts tender towards God and keeps our hearts from being callous. Apostle Paul tells his son in the faith Timothy about how people will act in the last days. 2 Timothy 3:2 (KJV) -2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Do you know that self-centeredness is the root of so many problems? If I find a thankful person it’s usually someone who is humble before God and is not always self-centered. They realize that their world doesn’t always revolve around them.
The Bible admonishes us in Ephesians 5:20 (KJV) -20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What this doesn’t say is to give thanks for all our problems. I don’t thank God for trials, sickness, and disease. I thank Him that He has made provision for me to walk in His strength, health, and healing because of Jesus. Thank God for what Jesus has done through the cross and His resurrection. God wants you to come before Him with thanksgiving. Have you made a list yet of what you’re thankful for?
Psalm 100:4 (NKJV) -4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. How about Psalm 95:2 (NKJV) -2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with Psalms.
When we come to God let us come with thanksgiving and not just with a grocery list of all our needs. The Old Testament character David was a man after God’s own heart. ( Acts 13:22 ). David in the Psalms many times gave thanks to God. God is a thankful God and we are to imitate him. Through all of David’s trials, he gave thanks to God for His faithfulness! The World could use a good dose of thanksgiving. What a blessing that here in America we can have a day of thanksgiving! Sometimes we have to do it by faith and offer it up as a sacrifice before God. It is an act of our will. Leviticus 22:29 (NKJV) -29 And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it of your own free will.
Faith thrives and abounds in an atmosphere of thanksgiving. Not in an atmosphere of doubt, unbelief, and fear. Give it a try and you will be truly blessed! There is always something to be thankful for. We pray that your day of Thanksgiving turns into an everyday occurrence.
In Christ’s love;
Brent and Linda
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