Complete Thanksgiving
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 9:1)
Thursday, Nov. 22 is a day that our nation gives thanks because a presidential decree has set it aside as a national day of Thanksgiving. As Christians, we realize that every day is really a day of Thanksgiving because each day we God a debt of gratitude for his bountiful blessings to us.
The single verse from the Psalms gives us three thoughts to consider and incorporate into our Thanksgiving holiday and every day.
We give thanks to God. This might seem like a moot or mundane point, but it is a good reminder. When Christians give thanks it is not simply a listing of our blessings and then uttering the 2 words “thank you” at the end. When Christians give thanks it is first and foremost recognizing that everything we have comes from God. How easily we fall into the trap of thinking that somehow “I have earned it.” or “I deserve to have some good things because of what I’ve done.”. As sinners we deserve nothing from God and rightfully should have nothing. God, in his grace, gave us the one thing we really need – Jesus as our Savior and then on top of that he pours out so much more into our lives.
We give thanks with all our heart. This thought flows from the words and thought above. When we realize what we truly deserve and then against the backdrop of that look at everything we have, it is pretty hard for our hearts not to overflow with humble gratitude and appreciation to God. When we realize how truly richly God has blessed us, no matter our circumstance or situation in life, our thanks wells up from the bottom of our heart and then gushes out to the throne of God.
We give thanks for all the blessings in our lives. This might seem like stating the obvious, but when you give thanks do you give thanks for everything in your life? The Psalmist puts it this way “I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”. When you stop to give thanks tomorrow and every day do you thank God not just for the “good” things” in your life, but also the “not so good” things? All of God’s wonderful deeds include everything that happens in our lives because in all things God works for our good. That loss, setback or detour on your life’s path is something God is using for your good – it may just be rather hard to see the good in it at the moment. You probably realize that if you try to list all your blessings and give thanks to God for them, you will invariably leave lots of things off the list. Try simply using the verse above as a prayer of thanksgiving and knowing that in that simple sentence you: 1) Acknowledge God as the giver of your blessings, 2) Give thanks with all your heart and 3) thank God for everything he allows to come into your life, even if you can’t see the blessing at the moment.
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family as you gather and realize how richly you have been blessed and then give complete thanks to God, the giver of all our blessings!