Thanksgiving
Now Playing: What are we grateful for ?
Topic: Thanks
During the holidays, when we see our relatives and receive gifts, we have to consider what we appreciate and what draws out a response of thanksgiving. There may be a Canadian holiday in October and an American holiday in November, but thanksgiving should form a natural part of every day of our lives. Paul could write to the Ephesian believers, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 5:19-20)

Thanksgiving should form a natural part of all our everyday activities. "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2). "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory" (1 Corinthians 15:57). "For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God" (1 Thessalonians 3:9-10). "Be careful (anxious) for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Nehemiah made some of his choices based upon some good criteria, "Then I brought up the princes of Judah, upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks..." (Nehemiah 12:31). When the apostle Paul met his brethren, "he thanked God, and took courage." (Acts 28:15) King David appointed the Levites, "to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise at evening..." (1 Chronicles 23:30). Paul wrote to Timothy that "meats [food], which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth" (1 Timothy 4:3).

Daniel could say, "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever; for wisdom and might are His; and He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding; He revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, Who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee; for thou hast now made known unto us..." (Daniel 2:20-23) May we be as thankful to God for the rich blessings, both natural and spiritual, which He has given to us!