Giving thanks to the Lord every day, every moment of our lives
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)
Our nation will once again observe a national day of Thanksgiving. But is it — or should it be — just be one day of Thanksgiving?
There is a story about Charles Dickens and a lecture tour he did in America. He told his audience 
we should not have one Thanksgiving Day, but 364 Thanksgiving Days. The one day left over would be used just for complaining and griping; the other 364 would be to thank God. Dickens said we tend to do the opposite. We complain for 364 days, and then, perhaps, on one day count our blessings.
His comments likely hold some truth and maybe even some personal indictment. That is especially true when we look at our Bible verse for this week. It is familiar to many and is often used as a meal or table prayer.
If you’ve ever used these words as a meal or table prayer, you know how real the temptation is to either mindlessly speak the words because you’ve said them so often or to rush through them so you can get to the food.
Take a long, hard look at those words. The Psalmist encourages us to give thanks “to the LORD,” not just to utter words of thanks for what we have or are about to enjoy. Giving thanks “to the LORD” means we recognize and acknowledge everything we are and have comes from God, and He alone deserves our thanks. It also means understanding that we don’t deserve anything because of our sinfulness, yet God gives us so much simply out of his grace — his undeserved love for us shown in Jesus our Savior.
One other thing I’d like you to note about these familiar words — “his love endures forever.” Those words alone are a reminder to us Thanksgiving should not be a singular event, but realistically should be something we do every moment of our lives.
We Pray: Heavenly Father, forgive us for our shallow thankfulness, which is often lacking and not mindful of all your grace and blessing to us. Help us truly give you thanks every moment of every day for your eternal and unending blessings. Let our thanks be shown not just in words, but in our attitude and in our actions. We ask this and can only accomplish this through your rich grace to us. In Jesus’ name we humbly pray. Amen.