Read: 1 Chronicles 16:7-36
“O give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever” (1 Chronicles
16:34 AMP)
We often think of Gratitude in
terms of Gain: Someone gives you a ride to work. A neighbor cooks a meal when
you’ve had surgery. Your boss notices your hard work and gives you a raise. The
kids clean up the house or your husband cooks dinner. For these things (no matter how rare or how often they're
done), of course You’re Grateful! And if you remember your mother’s
upbringing, you promptly write a thank-you note or better yet, open your mouth
and Tell Them Thank
You!
However, it’s even more astonishing to witness people Overcome with an Attitude of Thanksgiving in Dire
Circumstances: For example think of the parents of a terminally ill child
who praise God for each day of their daughter or son’s life. How can they
possibly visit the cancer center, watch them take needles every day for
diabetes, or wait endlessly on the list for a transplant, and yet still praise
and thank God for life? You might even be baffled by a family’s ability to be
thankful in the midst of disaster, weeping with joy that even though their
house and possessions have been destroyed by flood, fire or earthquake, their family has survived, and for that alone they are
thankful!
I’m always amazed by people
who can Thank God Regardless of Their Situation or Circumstance.
Those who possess a grateful heart even after their
car has been repossessed; those who still come to the house of the Lord with
praise on their lips even though they’ve been evicted from their own house. I’m
in awe of those who receive “death notices” from their doctor’s appointments and
yet they go out and still gratefully visit the sick and shut in. It’s
mind-blowing those who can preach a message after receiving a pink slip! Or
those who can attend a wedding, with gift in hand, and a smile on their face,
even though they just received their divorce papers in the mail. Believe it or not, there are people who are Really Just
Grateful! Why? Because they know that even when their lives change, their God
doesn’t! He is Consistently Faithful, and that They Refuse to Forget!
“O my soul, bless God. From
head to toe, I’ll bless His holy name! O my soul, bless God, don’t forget a
single blessing!” (Psalm 103:1-2 MSG)
That’s when your thanksgiving
is for real, when someone can look at your life and see not a thing you should
be thankful for and yet you continuously offer God your praise, worship,
exaltation, adoration, jubilance, gratitude and thanksgiving...anyhow! In other
words, God has been so good to you already that if He doesn’t do another thing
He is still worthy of your thanksgiving!
But even deeper than
Gratitude for a favor, or thankfulness in the midst of misery, thanksgiving can
be viewed as a Testament to an Enduring Quality in Someone we Admire and
Respect. For instance, David celebrated God’s divine attributes with a
heart of pure Thanksgiving. With great fanfare, the ark of the covenant had
finally arrived in Jerusalem and taken its place into the tent David had
prepared for it. After the offerings were made and the feast was over, David’s gladness spilled over into a great song of
jubilant thanksgiving.
Consider the countless
reasons you have to be Grateful. Has something brought great joy to your life?
Consider the attributes of those you love; your husband’s faithfulness, your
wife’s generosity, your friends’ trustworthiness, your parents’ goodness, your
child’s tender heart. Aren't you Grateful? Or do you get so caught up on the
negatives that it completely overshadows the positives?
Truth is, God has been better
to us than we could have ever been to ourselves, and better than Any of Us
Deserve! Just take a moment to reflect on His provision for you to have a place
to lay your head; food on your table; clothes on your back; transportation (by
any means) and traveling mercies as icing on the cake! Reflect on how He’s
healed you, saved you, delivered you, protected you! Reflect on how many times
He stepped in right in the nick of time! Reflect on how He’s kept you in a
right and sound mind, despite the chaos around you! Reflect on how He’s kept
you in the midst of the mess YOU put yourself in! The list could go on forever,
because that’s just how good He’s been! No matter how you look at it, The Lord
has been Good to You! You Owe Him a Grateful Heart!
This week is the perfect time
to “give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” Don’t
wait for the Thanksgiving DAY! After all, the Lord has abundantly blessed you,
and He didn’t wait for a holiday to do it, so why would you wait until a
holiday to Thank Him?
Start by expressing Thanks
for some of the things David included in his prayer:
“God’s Wonderful Acts…” (vs.
9, “Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His wondrous
works and devoutly praise them!” AMP);
“His Miracles…” (vs. 12,
“[Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds which He has done, His miracles, and
the judgments He uttered [as in Egypt],” AMP);
“His Salvation…” (vs. 23,
“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; show forth from day to day His salvation”
AMP);
“His Glory And Marvelous
Deeds Among All Peoples …” (vs. 24, “Declare His glory among the nations, His
marvelous works among all peoples” AMP);
“His Holiness…” (vs. 29,
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come before
Him; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in holy array” AMP).
Everything About God is
Worthy of Our Praise! Let us not allow anyone or anything to rob us of the gift of
a thankful, grateful heart! No matter what your situation is today it can
always be worse!
Believe it or not but someone is standing on line at a soup kitchen
grateful, while you throw half-eaten food in the garbage for which you didn’t
even say grace over to thank God for His provision.
Someone is grateful to have
enough coins to put in the bus to get from point A to point B, and yet you
mumble and grumble about the gas money you Do Have to put gas in your car.
Someone is grateful that Medicaid/Medicare covered enough of their prescription
cost that they could get their necessary meds, while you fuss that you have to
go and pick up your meds of which your health insurance covered in full.
Someone is grateful to wake up even if it’s alone, while you roll over next to
an imperfect spouse who loves you perfectly, and yet you’re ungrateful.
Someone
is excited that their child came home from school safely even through a rough
neighborhood, while you have yet to give God thanks for your straight A student,
in a private school, in a good neighborhood!
There is always someone somewhere
that would love to be in your shoes, but while they are in their own (no matter
how painful), they are walking with God…Grateful...Anyhow!
There are people pushing
their entire lives around in a shopping cart that are still thankful; there are
people sleeping under the bridge in a cardboard box that are still grateful;
there are people standing on the bridge who are thankful God sent someone right
on time to talk them off it before they took a leap to their death; there are
people riding the subways to stay warm who are still grateful for a little
temporary heat and shelter; there are people who had a half-eaten butter roll from the
garbage can this morning, and knowing that it will be their only meal for the day,
they still thank God for something to eat. There are people singing God’s
praises in the hospital; people are worshiping Him while enduring chemotherapy;
radiation and dialysis; people are thanking Him even as they go into surgery;
people are grateful to Him while struggling through rehab; people are adoring
Him behind prison walls as they’re so grateful to Him for saving, healing and
delivering them right where they are; people are eating His every Word
passionately even as they sit alone in the nursing homes with no one to visit
them but the presence of the Lord; people are sick and shut in, and still they
have praise on their lips and worship in their spirits.
Surely, you can think
of a reason also to give God thanks?
Are you getting this? Being
thankful has nothing to do with a holiday; being thankful should be a
believer’s everyday way of life. Because truthfully, we have so much to be grateful
for! After all the mistakes, fumbles, failures, flaws, bad choices, and
sin-filled days and nights, God still loved all of us so much that He would
send His only begotten Son to save such a wretch as we were, and still are! How
can we not be thankful? How can we not be grateful? Our names are written in
the Lamb’s Book of Life; we’re placed in the palm of the Father where no man
can pluck us out; we’re kept securely in the midst of the Father’s Will where
there is safety; we have Heaven as our hope and home. We indeed have much to be
grateful and thankful for, and none of us should ever need a holiday or
calendar to tell us that!
We should all sing with
David, “Let the
heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; and let men say among the nations,
The Lord reigns!” (vs. 31 AMP) Because despite
any of our circumstances, the Lord yet rules and reigns and treats His children
as the sons and daughters of a King, which they are (even when they don’t look
like it or live like it). We need to stop complaining, grumbling, murmuring,
because the Lord loves us, looks out for us, and lives in us, who wouldn’t be
grateful for that?
So, Today, no matter what
happens, Give God Thanks! Remember: No Matter What Road You Travel Down In
Life, No Matter How Bumpy, Or How Many Times You Feel Detoured and Even
Derailed…GOD IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL! YOU WILL REACH YOUR DESTINATION! So Why Not
Enjoy Jesus Along the Journey?! Give Him Thanks Always, For All Things!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Do you think your
friends and family would characterize you as a grateful person? Why or why not?
2. What are the
characteristics of God for which you are thankful?
3. How often do you
remember to thank God for His work in your life and in the world around
you?
4. Are you a complainer?
If so, what are you going to do, starting today, to change your behavior?
5. When something “bad”
happens, do you still thank God? Do you still trust God?
6. Who are 5 people you
are grateful to have in your life? Do they know you’re grateful for them?
7. How do you show your
loved ones your gratitude for them?
8. How has someone shown
you gratitude that you will never forget?
9. What is your favorite
Thanksgiving Scripture?
10. If you had to express your thanks to God in
only 3 words, what would they be? (And no it can’t be thank you Jesus)…lol,
surely you can be more creative than that!
RELATED SCRIPTURES:
Psalm 100:1-5, “Shout with
joy before the Lord, O earth! Obey Him gladly; come before Him, singing with
joy. Try to realize what this means – the Lord is God! He made us – we are His
people, the sheep of His pasture. Go through His open gates with great thanksgiving;
enter His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the
Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and His faithfulness goes on
and on to each succeeding generation” (TLB);
Colossians 3:16-17,
“Remember what Christ taught, and let His words enrich your lives and make you
wise; teach them to each other and sing them out in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts. And whatever you do
or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, and come with Him into
the presence of God the Father to give Him your thanks.” (AMP)
HOMEWORK: READ: Psalm
136:1-26
“Thou Who hast given so
much to me, give me one more thing – A GRATEFUL HEART” (George Herbert)
“There’s always a
blessing to thank God for; the ones you are aware of, and the ones that you are
not. Be grateful to God every day.”
“Sometimes I just look
up, smile and say, ‘I know that was You, God, thanks!’”
“God gave you a gift of
86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank You?” (Dr. William Arthur
Ward)
“I am grateful to God for
all His many untold blessings upon my life.” (Lailah Gifty Akita)
“Gratitude is our ability
to see the grace of God, morning by morning, no matter what else greets us in
the course of the day.” (Craig Barnes)
“Dear God: Today, I woke
up. I’m healthy. I’m alive. I’m blessed. I apologize for all my complaining.
I’m truly grateful for all You have done in my life.” (Author Unknown)
“The best way to show my
gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.” (Mother
Teresa)
“When we were children we
were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we
not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” (Gilbert K.
Chesterton)
“Gratitude is Thanking
God After it Happens. Faith is Thanking God Before it Happens.” (Mark
Batterson)
Much Love, Dr.
Shermaine
#EnjoyTheRead
#BeInspired #BeEncouraged #BeEmpowered #BeChallenged #ShareTheWord #BeThankful
