Being Thankful, Pt. 5

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Psalm 6:5

Here in the United States, we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday.  People took a day (or at least part of a day) and were generally thankful.  As Christians, we know that we should be thankful all of the time for every thing – not just for one day out of the year.

This verse asks an interesting question: “in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”

The need for us to be thankful is an urgent need.  We need to be thankful now, not some day in the future when we have everything we want and everything is going well.  The reason we need to be thankful now is simple: we only have a limited amount of time in which to be thankful.  We only have a limited amount of time in which to express our thanks to the Lord for all that He has done for us and given us.

Once our life is over, we can no longer thank and praise Him.  (at least not here on Earth)  Our opportunity to thank Him – especially our opportunity to thank Him in front of others, is a “limited time opportunity.”  It will not last forever.

We need to be thankful while we have the chance to be thankful.  There is coming a day when that chance will be over.  As we look forward to 364 days before the next “Thanksgiving” holiday, we need to remember to be thankful every single one of those 364 days.

Are we thankful today?  Do the people around us – our family, our friends, our coworkers, and our neighbours – know that we are thankful?  As Christians, the answer to both of those questions should always be “yes!”

Being Thankful, Pt. 4

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I Thessalonians 5:18

On this day, which is the day we celebrate Thanksgiving (in the United States, at least), we will look at what is probably the most famous verse in the Bible about being thankful.

“In every thing give things: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

It is easy to be thankful on a day like today.  Many of us are surrounded by family and/or friends.  Many of us have tables full of food ready to be eaten in our comfortable homes.  We truly have much to be thankful for.  Even people who do not know the Lord will be thankful today.

But this verse would have us take our thankfulness to the next level.  It tells us “in every thing give thanks.”  That is a little more difficult than thanking the Lord for your family and the big turkey dinner you’re about to eat.  That includes thanking the Lord for things that we may not understand.  That includes thanking the Lord for things that we may not like or want in our lives.

The rest of the verse gives us the reason that we should give thanks in “every thing.”  “…for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  We can be thankful for every thing because we understand that God knows best.  We understand that, whatever may happen, it is from God and it is for a reason.  And that is definitely something for which we can be thankful all of the time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Being Thankful, Pt. 3

Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.  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.

Isaiah 51:3

This is not a passage that people look at when looking at “thanksgiving” passages.  It is in the book of Isaiah and it is a prophetic passage dealing with the future when the Lord comes to restore and rule His people.  It speaks of a glorious future time in history, when everything is good and pleasant.  I would like to look at the description of this perfect time and place: “…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.”  Right in the middle of this wonderful description we find that there will be “thanksgiving.”

We might tend to think “of course there will be thanksgiving then and there – the Lord Himself will be ruling and all will be good.”  But has He not promised us all of that and more?  Is He not ruling in our hearts and lives even today?  Why should we not be thankful?

Too often, we get our minds focused on what we don’t have or what is going wrong in our lives.  We need to focus instead on all that He has given us and promised us.  We need to submit to Him and His will and be thankful that He knows the way and has promised to lead and guide us.  Everywhere God is in the Bible, we find thankfulness.  Can we find it in our lives today?

Being Thankful, Pt. 1

I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.

Psalm 35:18

During this “Thanksgiving week,” we will look at some different aspects of thankfulness that will hopefully help us to be more thankful.  Sadly, thankfulness seems to be dying trait in our modern world, but we as Christians should always be thankful.  We have no excuse after all the Lord has given us to be thankful for.

In this verse the Psalmist identifies two different places he is going to “give thanks” to the Lord.  The first place is “in the great congregation.”  The second is “among much people.”

It is a fine and good think to thank the Lord while we are praying.  It is right and proper to thank Him for His daily mercies when we lay our heads on our pillows at night.  Silently bowing our heads and thanking Him for His provision before we eat our meals is wonderful.  But we should also, like the Psalmist in this verse, praise and thank Him in front of others.

Our families and friends should know that we are thankful to the Lord.  Our co-workers and the members of our church should know that we are thankful to the Lord.  We should thank and praise Him everywhere we find an opportunity.

When we hear someone else thanking the Lord, it helps us to look at ourselves and be thankful for what He has done for us.  Thankfulness begets more thankfulness.  If you start with one person being truly thankful and expressing it, you soon end up with many people being thankful and expressing it.  And that creates a whole “spirit” of thankfulness, which leads to a host of other blessing!

We know that being thankful in our hearts is the main thing, but we also need to let that thankfulness come out of our mouths!  How are we doing today?

The Lord is Good

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalm 100:1-5

During this week of celebrating Thanksgiving, our minds have probably been drawn to all of the things for which we are thankful.  We have probably thanked the Lord many times during this week for many different things, life, health, family, friends, salvation, and church likely among them.  I thought I would end this week with one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 100.

Verse 5 starts out “For the LORD is good…”  That is the exact conclusion that I came to after thinking about thankfulness and trying to be thankful during this week.  The Lord most certainly is good.  He is good in every way and at all times.  There may be times that we do not understand what He is doing, but we can rest assured that, whatever He may do, it will be good.

He has freely given us salvation.  He hears and answers our prayers.  He has given us a perfect Bible to read and study.  Even when we fail Him, He has made a way for us to be forgiven.  As verse 5 also says, “his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”  If we had nothing else in the world but our salvation, we would conclude that “the Lord is good.”  But He has chosen to give us so much more.  He has chosen to give us life, and health, and friends and family.  All of the blessings we enjoy come from Him.  That is why, in the words of verse 4, we should “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.

The Lord is good.

A “Post-Thanksgiving Post”

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.  Amen.

Revelation 7:11-12

On this the day after Thanksgiving, we will look at a passage of scripture that might help us to be thankful even on days that are not celebrated as major holidays.  The world refers to this day as “Black Friday,” a time when people madly rush from store to store buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have.  I find it interesting that right after spending a day celebrating being thankful for what we have, we spend the next day consumed with greed and materialism.  But, I digress.

In this passage, John shows us a scene in Heaven.  The angels and the elders and the four beasts are standing around the throne of God.  As often happens in the presence of God, they fell on their faces before Him and worshipped Him.  And notice what they said: “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.”  Even in Heaven, thanksgiving is still observed.  In Heaven, away from all of the sin and filth of the world, they are still thankful.

The thing I would like us to see and think about today is this: we are going to be giving thanks to the Lord in Heaven.  We might as well start now and get used to it now.  For all of eternity, “for ever and ever,” we are going to be thanking the Lord for all He has done for us.  We should just go ahead and start thanking Him today – that will give us some good practice for Heaven!

The Importance of Thanksgiving IV

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I Thessalonians 5:18

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalm 100:4-5

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  It is a day in which we celebrate thankfulness.  That’s a great reason for a holiday if ever there was one.  We have all seen the above verses before, so there is little need for me to comment too much on them.  We are told over and over again to be thankful.  Are we?

Today, we should concentrate on being truly thankful.  We should, throughout the day, think of things for which we are thankful.  We should then express this thankfulness to God and to those around us.  Being thankful is a wonderful thing and it is impossible to be too thankful.  Enjoy the day.  Enjoy all the Lord has given you and done for you.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Importance of Thanksgiving III

Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.  Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. 

Daniel 6:9-10

The decree that king Darius signed in verse 10 was the decree that no person should pray or ask any thing of anyone other than the king for 30 days.  The people who got his to sign this decree were just trying to get rid of Daniel.  They knew that Daniel was faithful and that he prayed consistently, three times a day.  So, Darius signed this decree that anyone who asked any thing of anyone else would be put in a den of lions and Daniel knew about.  What did Daniel do?  Daniel did exactly what Daniel was supposed to do.  He went right ahead and prayed, ignoring the king’s decree.

It is interesting to note that, in verse 10, the first thing he did was “gave thanks before his God.”  Daniel’s prayers were prayers of thanks.  He even prayed a prayer of thanksgiving when he knew that it would mean his going to the lions’ den.  It didn’t matter what the consequences, he understood the importance of offering thanksgiving to the Lord and the importance of just being thankful.  He was determined to continue to pray and be thankful even if it would cost him his life.

That is serious thankfulness.  I’m sure that none of us have ever been put in the position of having to choose to be thankful and die or to not be thankful and keep our mouths shut and live.  But if we were, what would we choose?  Would we still be committed to being thankful?  Let us be thankful during the good times, and that will make it easier to be thankful during the bad times!

The Importance of Thanksgiving II

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 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.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Romans 1:20-22

As we have come to the time of year in which we celebrate thankfulness, it is important to look at some of the passages of scripture that talk about thankfulness.  There is no shortage of verses telling us to be thankful and giving us reasons to be thankful.  This passage tells us what can happen when we refuse to be thankful.

God is, in this passage, telling us about the “descent of mankind.”  It can be viewed from the perspective of mankind in general or of any particular man who rejects God.  It is the downward spiraling cycle that occurs when man continually rejects God.  Man comes into the world with the understanding that there is a God.  God is clearly seen in nature all around us.  But, over time, man starts thinking of himself as a god, and rejects the true God.

One of the ways in which man starts rejecting God and placing himself in that position is unthankfulness: “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain…”  This vanity and losing sight of God comes, in part, from simply not being thankful.  When we are not thankful for something, we tend to take that thing for granted.  We tend to ignore it, assuming that it will always be there.  Men have ignored God and have taken Him for granted.  Thus starts a terrible slide that ends with God “giving them over” to their own lusts and sins.

A terrible fate comes with unthankfulness.  Let us be thankful, both during this season and all year long!

The Importance of Thankfulness I

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  And above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Colossians 3:12-15

As we come into this season of Thanksgiving, I think it is important to remember why we should be thankful and just how important it is to be thankful.  Beyond the family and friends and turkey and stuffing, we really do need to be thankful, both at this time of year and all of the other times as well.

This passage is about what we, as Christians, are supposed to “put on.”  Just as we would put on a change of clothes in the morning, there are certain things that the Lord would have us “put on.”  Among the things mentioned here are mercy, kindness, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, charity, peace, and thankfulness.  Thankfulness is mentioned toward the end of the passage, at the end of verse 15: “…and be ye thankful.”

“…and be ye thankful.”  It’s just a short and simple statement, but a powerful one.  It’s a very simple command.  Be ye thankful.  To borrow a phrase from Nike, “just do it.”  A Christian is commanded to “be ye thankful.”  We can look at other simple commands such as “thou shalt not kill” and have no problem understanding and obeying it.  But sometimes “be ye thankful” gives us problems.

Are we really thankful today?  Are we obeying this very simple command?  It couldn’t be worded any simpler.  Are we thankful?