On Giving Thanks

On Thursday November 23 the Nation celebrates Thanksgiving Day. This is the most celebrated holiday In the United States with more people observing this Holiday than do Christmas. Families throughout the US make a concerted effort to get together on Thanksgiving Day to enjoy a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings and afterwards watch a football game on TV.

Thanksgiving also kicks of the Christmas Holiday shopping season with lots of bargains offered online and in brick and mortar department stores.

Children of God and believers in His Son ought to daily live a life of thanksgiving.

 “But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation….” Psalm 79:13.

Typically, our prayers of thanksgiving focus on our creature comforts (clothing, food, shelter, our new car, children’s health, careers, etc.). But GOD our Father is more than His provisions – He is our Portion.

Greater than our possessions is GOD Himself.

The psalmist Asaph writes, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but GOD is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” Psalm 73:25-26. As he looks around him, he sees the world as unbalanced and unfair but Asaph remembers that he is only a visitor here on earth. He has an inheritance, a portion, which is GOD Himself, as does every child of GOD!

GOD’s attributes are the parts of Himself which make Him Other.  

These are among the attributes of GOD we should acknowledge with thanksgiving, even more than we do our worldly comforts.

1. GOODNESS/ UNFAILING LOVE: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34, 41; “…unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.” Psalm 62:12. God alone is good whose love is perfect.
2. MERCY: O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1; Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. 1 Peter 1:3. GOD’s mercy originates in His goodness and it is great, abundant and everlasting.
3. HOLINESS: “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness.” Exodus 15:11; Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Habakkuk 1:13. GOD alone is independently, infinitely holy. All that is morally excellent is found in Him. The Scriptures frequently refer to GOD as “The Holy One.”
4. CREATIVITY: “with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1; “…proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.” Psalm 26:27. God created the entire universe, the heavens and the earth, and He keeps it all in perfect order.
5. POWER: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” Psalm 28:7; “God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you.” Psalm 62:11. The power to exalt or bring down belongs to GOD alone.
6. TRUSTWORTHINESS: The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. Psalm 145:13; For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. Psalm 33:4. We can trust GOD to act truthfully and with fairness.
7. WISDOM: To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might. Daniel 2:23; “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” Job 12:13. God is Wisdom – the Bible describes Him as the only wise GOD and tells us also that even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. By His wisdom alone He created all things according to His will and purpose.
8. PATIENCE: The Lord is …full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. Psalm 145:8; “You are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, Abundant in kindness,” Nehemiah 9:17. Stephen Charnock, Puritan Biblical Scholar  says in part about GOD’s patience, “GOD’s slowness to anger is a branch from His mercy…. mercy pities (the creature) in his misery, and patience bears with the sin which engendered the misery, and is giving birth to more.”
9. FAITHFULNESS: “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations.” Deuteronomy 7:9; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Psalm 36:5. GOD cannot be unfaithful as it would be contrary to who He is. GOD by His very nature is immutable.
10. IMMUTABILITY: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17; “For I am the Lord, I do not change;” Malachi 3:6; God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” Exodus 3:14. GOD’s immutability is what distinguishes Him from the rest of His creatures. GOD is perpetually the same – there is no change in His being, attributes, or purposes.

These characteristics identify GOD as GOD and separate from His creatures. The One true living and eternal Father who will also provide our daily “needs”.

When we know GOD as Himself we are able to ascribe to Him a more meaningful form of thanksgiving:

• We give thanks with greater faith because GOD is the “I AM.”
• We give thanks with confidence in GOD’s purpose because we are sure of His faithfulness and goodness.
• We give thanks with hope for the future of our generations to come because GOD is immutable.

We give GOD all that is due to Him as our Portion and our inheritance forever.

“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me.” Psalm 50:23.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Prayer and Thanksgiving: We give thanks to YOU O Great I AM because YOU are good and YOUR mercy endures forever. We acknowledge that YOU are Wisdom and Power, Creator of Heaven and earth and all that is in it. We thank YOU most of all as The Holy One who personifies all the fruit of the Holy Spirit richly and perfectly – that YOU are Light in whom no darkness can exist. We thank YOU for the perfect gift sent down from Heaven to redeem us – JESUS CHRIST, our LORD. Father, we delight ourselves in YOU first and foremost, trusting that YOU will be our PORTION for all eternity. Now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To GOD our Savior, Who alone is Wise, be Glory and Majesty, Dominion and Power, both now and forever. Amen!

Always by GOD’s WORD and prayer,

Cecile