We all know that today is the day that we set aside to express our gratitude for — well, everything. But thankfulness isn’t something that we’re meant to simply set aside one day a year for.
We should have a mindset of thankfulness every day, but sometimes that’s easier said than done. This world has more of a sense of entitlement than ever, and it’s easy to fall into that trap.
Gratitude is “not an easy virtue, even on a good day,” writes the Center for Pastor Theologians. “Far easier is an attitude of entitlement — that sniveling and singularly unattractive presumption that what's yours is yours by virtue of merit or morality or some other human achievement or distinctive.”
Thankfulness isn’t just a great idea; it’s also something that’s supposed to be our default as believers. Thanksgiving offerings were a regular part of the old covenant sacrificial system, and the scriptures admonish and encourage us to give thanks regularly.
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Past, Present, and Future in the Sermon on the Mount
The Psalms are rich with references to thanksgiving and gratitude:
I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 26:6-7 (ESV)
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High.
Psalm 50:14 (ESV)
[The Lord says,] “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
Psalm 50:23 (ESV)
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30 (ESV)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
Psalm 100:4 (ESV)
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.
Psalm 116:17 (ESV)
The Old Testament prophets both admonished Israel to give thanks and predicted a day when God’s people would express their gratitude to the Lord. And, of course, we see verses in the New Testament about thankfulness as well.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:15-17 (ESV)
…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV)
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15 (ESV)
So how do we avoid that trap and approach each day with a spirit of gratitude, regardless of circumstances? For starters, having the right mindset will help us express thankfulness.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminded His followers how to focus properly, when he said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV).
Jesus also summed up the correct attitude for life in what He called the greatest commandments in the Torah: “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:37-40, ESV)
“Throughout God’s Word, we see example after example of the essential role thankfulness has in the Christian life, no matter the circumstance,” a devotion from the Billy Graham Library reminds us. “Giving thanks should not be limited to a single day, but a daily intimate practice that centers your mind on God’s blessings. We are to give thanks to God, for it glorifies Him and focuses our gaze on His goodness.”
Don’t forget that, as Jesus’ brother James put it, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17, ESV). So we have so much to be thankful for! This Thanksgiving, challenge yourself to carry that spirit of gratitude over to your everyday life.
Happy Thanksgiving, PJ Media family!
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