Giving Thanks Always

-November 22, 2023-

Good morning beloved, happy Wednesday,

“Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:20).

“In everything give thanks; for this the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Yesterday we discussed how wonderful it is to join together giving thanks as a body of believers; today we want to consider our individual thanksgiving to the Lord for and in all things. The list of our blessings is limitless and our thanks to God should unbounded as well. Both of today’s verses were written by Paul for the early Christians and for us today.

Thanksgiving is a combination of thanks + giving. We give thanks for His giving by giving Him thanks always. We have spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, and material blessings. David wrote in Psalm 103:1-2, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” We should be thankful day in and day out; in season and out of season; when times are good and when times are bad; when we are strong and when we are weak.

The hymn writer wrote, “Count your blessings, name them one by one; count your many blessings, see what God hath done.” When we are grateful things just seem better, richer, and fuller. The sun seems to shine a little brighter, the sky seems a little bluer. We can never thank the Lord too much, but we can, and often do, thank Him too little.

The story is told by Pastor Jack Hinton from Bern, North Carolina who was leading the songs for a Worship Service at a leper colony in Tobago. There was time for one more selection, a woman in the audience who had turned away from pulpit, whose nose and ears were almost gone and her lips were rotted away, asked for the hymn, “Count Your Blessings.” After the service, Pastor Jack left the building. One of his teammates said to him, “Jack, I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.” “Yes I will,” Jack replied, “but I will never sing it the same way again,”

Let us be thankful for what we have and what we don’t have. Many in the world have it much worse than we do, have much less than we have, but are more thankful than we are. Have a blessed day thanking the Lord in all things and for all things. Stay safe and healthy.

Thankfulness is simply being full of thanks,

Dean