LIVING IN THANKFULNESS

This is an oldie but a goodie that I wrote several years ago.  Still very relevant to today! I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving day!

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Col. 2:6.."As you therefore have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and establised in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Phil. 4:6-7.."Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

The secret of having joy is learning to live in thankfulness always in all circumstances. This is God's will for us and He knows if we are always grumbling and unable to be thankful in all things that we will not have His joy and may even fall under the trials and temptations in our life. His joy is our strength and ability to endure.

We are told to be thankful always...everyday...in all things, not just one day a year. Don't we feel good when we've spent Thanksgiving meditating on all the things we are thankful for? Just think if everyday was Thanksgiving! It should be for the believer in Jesus Christ!

I looked in my Thesaurus for synonyms of Thankful. Here is what I found: grateful, appreciative, acknowledge, give recognition, contented, satisfied, indebted to, pleased, kindly disposed, overwhelmed.

The opposite of thankfulness is ungratefulness. Here are some synonyms for that: thankless, selfish, lacking in appreciation, grasping, demanding, forgetful, self-centered, unmindful, heedless, careless, insensible, dissatisfied, grumbling, unnatural, faultfinding, oblivious.

Quite an interesting comparison in attitudes here. I know for myself when my children are ungrateful it makes me hurt very much that they don't recognize what I have done for them...how I've given myself to them, even sacrificing my own wants or needs. It makes me feel they are so self centered when they only want more instead of being thankful for what they have as if they deserved it when it was a special treat or gift given. How rude someone seems to us and greedy when they are given a gift and turn their nose up at it because they wanted better.

When we realize how much God has saved us from, sacrificing His own Son for us when we were gross sinners, who deserved His wrath; how can we be discontent with what He has given us? We are saying..."God...I deserve more!"

1 Thess. 5:18.."in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Matthew Henry Commentary: "If we pray without ceasing, we shall want matter for thanksgiving in everything. We should be thankful in every condition,even in adversity as well as prosperity. It is never so bad with us but it might be worse. We never can have any reason to complain of God, and have always much reason to praise and give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us, that we give thanks. He allows us to rejoice evermore, and appoints us in everything to give thanks."

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible: In everything give thanks… That is, to God the Father, in the name of Christ; see (Ephesians 5:20) thanks are to be given to him for all things, as the Ethiopic version renders it; for all temporal good things; for our beings, the preservation of them; for food and raiment, and all the mercies of life; for the means of grace, the word and ordinances, and the ministers of the Gospel; for spiritual blessings, for electing, redeeming, regenerating, adopting, pardoning, justifying, and persevering grace: for a meetness for heaven, a right unto it, and a good hope of it; and especially for Jesus Christ, for such an husband, such an head, such a surety and Saviour, and advocate with the Father, as he is; and for life, peace, joy, comfort, righteousness, and salvation in him: and thanks should be given to God in every circumstance of life; in adversity, as Job did; when not in so comfortable and agreeable a frame of soul as to be wished for, since it might be worse, and is not black despair; even under the temptations of Satan, since they might be greater and heavier, and since the grace of God is sufficient to bear up under them, and deliver out of them, and since there is such a sympathizing high priest and Saviour; and in afflictions of every kind, since they are all for good, temporal, or spiritual, or eternal.

You see in giving thanks always we are protected from giving the devil a foothold in our lives through fear, unbelief, discouragement...etc. To give thanks is to say God is in control...I trust Him with all of my life everyday and am content and overwhelmingly grateful for what He has provided according to His abundant grace, knowing I deserve nothing but death and wrath.

We give thanks even in adversity! Nothing is really adverse when we are in Christ, because...Rom. 8:28.."And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." and...Rom. 8:31.."What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" and...Rom. 8:37..."Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Today and everyday let us live in thankfulness!

God bless and keep you!