This upcoming Thursday, countless Americans across the country will be gathering with friends and family to partake in the traditions of the Thanksgiving holiday. Typically, homes are filled with the aroma of turkey and all the fixings, and living rooms are packed with people watching the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys play football. Personally, it is my favorite holiday of the year because, in addition to the aforementioned family, food, and football aspects, we are invited to do something each fourth Thursday in November that we should do every day but oftentimes fail to do: give thanks for God's many blessings.
Throughout the Word of God, we are implored to be known for our thankfulness. The psalmist commands us to "[g]ive thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever" (Psalm 136:1). Isaiah writes, "Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted" (Isaiah 12:4). In the New Testament, the apostle Paul instructs the church to "do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:17). He even goes on to highlight in a subsequent letter that Christians are to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
The fact of the matter is that followers of Christ should be the most thankful people on the planet whenever you stop to consider everything God has done for us through Jesus. In Christ, hopeless sinners have been granted access to the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. God's only Son died for the sins of the whole world and has made salvation available to everyone from everywhere, and by believing in Christ crucified and resurrected, we become new creations (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the good news of the gospel, and this good news changes everything. Thus, for the Christian, giving thanks is not just reserved for a single holiday but is to be a way of life.
How can we express our thanks to God? There are three main ways we can and should express our thanks on a daily basis. First of all, we can thank God through prayer. Paul commands, "[D]o not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6, emphasis added). In our prayer life, we need to prioritize the continual offering of our thanks to the God who has changed everything for us in and through Christ. Before we proceed to making those requests known, we need to begin our prayers by praising and thanking God for who He is and what He has done. Through this moment of thankful reflection, we humble our hearts before Almighty God and therefore rightly approach the throne of grace.
Secondly, we can thank God through our worship, both on a personal level as well as on a corporate level. Oftentimes, we tend to associate worship with singing and music, and while worshipping God through song is encouraged in Scripture, we need to realize that worship is not limited to whenever instruments are being played. For instance, going back to the previous point, we can worship God through our prayers by magnifying His holy name. Furthermore, we can worship God by studying and submitting to His Word. Whenever we worship God, we are essentially responding, with thanksgiving, to the life-changing power of the gospel, which is why God's Word invites us to "[e]nter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" (Psalm 100:4).
Finally, on a related note to the prior two points, we can thank God through our personal devotion to Him. Romans 12:1 states, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (emphasis added). Our lives are to be surrendered totally to Him, and when we surrender to the Lord, we are, in turn, worshipping Him through our personal devotion to Him. How does this relate to thanksgiving? Because a surrendered life should also be a thankful life. As you walk with the Lord and as you grow closer to Him, you bask more and more in His majesty and realize on a deeper level just how lost you would be without Him. By living completely sold-out to God, you recognize more consistently how thankful you are for the opportunity to even know God in the first place.
I write all this to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ this Thanksgiving week, but I am also writing this for my own personal edification too. I need to be reminded, from time to time, that my entire existence is owed exclusively to God, and even though I know that, I still fail to thank God for everything He has done for me on a regular basis. I beseech you, beloved, to not only thank God for being God annually one afternoon over a meal; instead, cultivate a holistic life that is defined by a thankful heart, for "[g]reat is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3). May the cry of our hearts continually be this: "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).
For His glory,
Cody Fleenor
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