Give Thanks - He is Good!

For the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving I am going to focus upon giving thanks. I really enjoy the holiday season. But have you noticed over the last few years how that Thanksgiving has been over looked? I was at our local Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and saw Christmas decorations being stocked on the shelves.

Somehow we don’t like to say thank you. Saying thank you is something that parents teach their children early in their lives. We have all heard mother and dad say, "What do you say?" after someone has extended to us a mercy.

So why is it so hard to say "Thank You?" I think it is because giving thanks is primarily a humbling experience. It is somewhat embarrassing to say "Thank You," because it is not only a recognition of a grace or mercy that has been extended to us, it is also a recognition of being in a position to need grace or mercy.

Our society is anything but humble, or aware of needing grace and mercy. We are a very proud people; self-sufficient, self-confident, anything but self-abasing.

Believers should not be so. To fail to say thank you is to retain your pride and not humble yourself before your benefactor. the very fact we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is to recognize how insufficient self is, and to recognize how very indebted we are to grace.

To give thanks is to recognize you have been benefited by someone else. To give thanks is to appreciate someone who has done something for you. To give thanks is to exalt another person. To give thanks is to say I am insufficient and another person is far greater than I.

David wrote in Psalm 107:1 "O give thanks unto the LORD, for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever." It is the Lord who is greater than we are. It is the Lord who extends mercy. It is the Lord who does so because His very nature is good!

Consider this believer, if we do not give thanks to the Lord, who will? It is the believer who recognizes the benefits of God’s grace. It remains then for the believer to return to the Lord thanks for all He is and has done for us.

We have so much to be thankful for. But be focused in your thanksgiving. Realize you have been benefited. You needed His grace and mercy. Apart from Him there would be no reason to learn to give thanks.

"Give thanks with a grateful heart, Give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son."

Have a wonderful day serving our Wonderful Lord, by Grace Alone!