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Psalm 118:28-29 (NLT) - You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you. 29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
I love Thanksgiving time. I love the food but even more I love the time with family.
I love the fact that people stop and take inventory of the goodness of God in their lives.
At this time of the year when we are especially reminded to stop and think about what we are thankful, grateful, and appreciative for, it would be good for us to consider whether we have been thankful, grateful, and appreciative all year round!
Even if we’ve been through hard times, those times could have been even harder, and we can think of much to be thankful, grateful, and appreciative for right now, while we’re still going through our difficult time or struggle.
The Bible commands us be thankful” and “in everything, give thanks.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 - In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(AMP) - In every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Even if things seem to be going wrong all around us, we can still stop to count our blessings! We may be in need at the present moment, but the fact is, we each have many reasons to be thankful!
All three words — “thankfulness,” “gratitude,” and “appreciation” — are the expressions of a person who is thankful he has experienced some good event or blessing.
They depict someone who is grateful toward the person or people who treated him kindly and is appreciative of what has happened. These words also communicate the recognition of his thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation of his many blessings.
Thankfulness and Gratitude are not an attitude they are a condition of the heart.
The Bible tells us that Goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.
I love that song… I will Sing of the Goodness of God. If we are going to sing someone’s praises it should be God’s. He has been so good to us.
Goodness of God
I love you, Lord
For your mercy never fails me
All my days, I've been held in your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
All my life you have been faithful
All my life you have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
I love your voice
You have led me through the fire
In the darkest night
You are close like no other
I've known you 79 as a Father
I've known you as a Friend
I have lived in the goodness of God
Your goodness is running after
It's running after me
Your goodness is running after
It's running after me
With my life laid down
I'm surrendered now
I give you everything
'Cause our goodness is running after
It's running after me
I think there is a profound reason why this song has resonated within the body of Christ. God has been faithful, kind and good to us. Truth be told- better than we deserve.
I love the line – All my life you have been faithful, All my life you have been so, so Good. – David Said – “I was young and now I am old yet I have NEVER seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread.” Now that I am in my 50’s I can say the same thing.
Psalm 34:3-9 - Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. 6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you, His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. (NLT) for those who fear him will have all they need.
Those who know the Lord have tasted and seen that He is good.
I love how David lists the ways that the goodness of God has impacted his life. He says this is how God will bless all of those who have trusted Him.
I was looking at these verses and I was struck with how intertwined thankfulness is with trust.
Have you ever noticed that the people you are thankful for the most are the people that you trust the most? – This goes deep to the heart and often results in us praising those we trust.
Your wife, husband, children a true friend and of course our God.
Every blessing that we have comes from God.
He gave them to us.
The only way people or God know that we are grateful is if we tell them.
It is one thing to be thankful internally, it is a completely better thing to give thanks and tell someone.
To give thanks means that you don’t keep that gratitude to yourself.
Thanksgiving involves expression and intention.
Grateful people linger over life’s blessings.
The English word thank shares the same root as think.
Thankfulness is intimately connected to thoughtfulness.
We can’t be grateful without being mindful of the many benefits we enjoy in life and conscious of the rich blessings we have been given. Grateful people take time to rejoice, which literally means to experience repeated joy through the remembrance of the grace and goodness one has received.
We are blessed. It is important to count our blessings. The truth is that we have so many blessings that the prophet Ezekiel called them Showers of Blessing.
Ezekiel 34:26 -I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.
(AMP) I will make them and the places around My hill (Jerusalem, Zion) a blessing. And I will make showers come down in their season; there will be [abundant] showers of blessing (divine favor).
When God blesses, it is not just a trickle. Not a light drizzle but showers. There are many types of blessings He gives us.
This list is not in order, but if it were this would be the top. Salvation, deliverance, heaven forever, Jesus as our King, the abiding Holy Spirit, and the Father, the Source of all blessings. Every comfort, help and wisdom of the Spirit of God. All we can call these are "spiritual riches” for which we should never stop giving God glory.
The ability to walk, breathe, talk, lift, and a thousand other normal motions and actions is fantastic. We could be impaired in hundreds of different ways but God has given us strength, life, and vitality.
Don’t lose sight of all that you have and are for what you want and are not.
God has given me my wife for 34 years. I have three amazing children. I have grandchildren. I come from a great family.
Cars, clothes, food, furniture, beds, and literally hundreds of labor-saving devices (like the computer I am typing this on). I marvel at times at how much “stuff” we have accumulated and we have so many material blessings sometimes we get annoyed at how much we have. Millions of people worldwide have not a drop of clean water or a comfortable piece of clothing.
God has blessed us with many church family and friends.
Philippians 1:3-5 - I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
Think about the people that God has brought into your life to be a blessing. Stop thinking about the ones that get under your skin and thank God for the ones that are a blessing to your life.
We should take a moment to think through the blessings in our life. Take inventory on what God has blessed you with and go into your life with a new perspective. Let’s give thanks.
God is doing a work in His people. It seems like the default setting in our culture is to find something to complain about. What sets the people of God apart from everyone else is that we are truly grateful for all that God has done and for the people that He has placed in our lives.
We find reasons to be grateful, thankful and appreciative.
I thank God for you. May you find yourself rejoicing in all that God has and all that He has done for you. May we all find ourselves living in contentment, peace and joy.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Harvest.
Remember that YOU are loved and appreciated.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay