Giving Thanks.

In recent years, it seems as though the only events that make the news are the negative events, almost as if being negative is the only criteria for newsworthiness. But it is not just the news. Sometimes we review our day or our week, the work we do and the contexts we have to live in, and it might prove a bit difficult to find reasons to be thankful.

Meanwhile, at other times, there might be so much to be thankful for, but we fail to do so, because we esteem those things as our normal expected experience, and as such they do not deserve recognition and honorary mention.

How then is it? There are several reason why we should give thanks. I will present some to us.

Firstly,

[4] Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
[5] For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalms 100:4-5 (KJV)

The first reason we are to be thankful is focused on Him to whom our Thanksgiving is addressed. We give thanks to God because we recognize and acknowledge that He is good and His mercy is everlasting, and as long as we esteem that these are true, then they suffice as reasons enough to do so (also, read Psalms 107:21).

Secondly,

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)

The second reason we are to give thanks is because it is God’s will for us in Christ. God wills that we give thanks to him. Giving thanks is doing the will of God. According to The Message Bible paraphrased, this is the way God wants us to live.

Thirdly,

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Eph 5:20

The third reason is that everything is a reason to give thanks to God.

I know that this sounds odd and impractical. But remember our first point. We already mentioned that we give thanks with our focus on God and not on things. So how do you give thanks to God when you just lost a baby? It might look something like this:

Father, we thank you because you made us to know the joy of motherhood, we thank you because even though we are pained right now, we are comforted knowing our child, your act of kindness to us, is with you, the giver of all good things. Our heart are open to you, because we trust that by your mercies, we shall yet again find that our joy is made full. Amen.

I know you are thinking, well, this is easier said than done. It is. However, Scripture never hides from us the difficulty of our life experiences. On the contrary, it primes us to them, and exhorts us to see the goodness of God in and through them.

Fourthly,

[6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV)

The fourth reason is that Thanksgiving is part of our prayer enterprise. It is not simply thanking God because of what He has done or what He will do. It is also thanking God for hearing us. This is profound. It changes your prayer adventure, when you know that God is hearing you.

Your prayer not an email He will get to when He is less busy or something HE files in a ‘to-hear’ list. In that very moment you open your heart in prayer, the ears of the Lord are inclined to you. It changes everything.

Consider Jesus:

[41] Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
[42] And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

John 11:41-42 (KJV)

I pray that our hearts start to thank God in everything, and find in everything a reason to give thanks.