Who Are You Thanking This Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the good things we have, the good times we’ve enjoyed, and the good people we know or have known.
But, who are we thanking?
We are misplacing our thanks if we don’t acknowledge the preeminence of God in everything. No matter who or what we give thanks to, it all started with God. If we do not give God thanks, then our affections are misplaced. In the book of James, we read:
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)
This verse makes clear several facts about the character of God.
First, all good things come from Him; no one receive anything good unless it comes from God. We cannot take the credit for sustaining ourselves or supplying our own needs. We may be the instrument God uses, but it is by His strength and His arrangements that we exist.
Second, this verse tells us that His gifts are “good” and “perfect”; we cannot blame Him for the bad things that happen in our lives. We are also told that this is how God has always been, how He is, and how He will always be. We can trust in the loving character of God.
Romans chapter one reveals that the downward spiral of mankind begins with the refusal to acknowledge the rightful place of God in our lives:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or GIVE THANKS to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21 ESV)
If we consider anything more important than God, we are committing idolatry and the Bible says that idolatry will keep us out of the Kingdom of God:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor IDOLATERS, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV)
No one, who deems anything more important than God, can expect to spend eternity in Heaven.
God deserves our thanks!
God wants and deserves our thanks, worship, and obedience. He not only started this big blue marble spinning, but He enables it to remain spinning. The Bible says that everything we do should be what He wants us to do and we should always give Him thanks:
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 3:17 ESV)
We should thank Him for every minute of out lives. The Bible says that it is God’s will that we should continually give Him thanks:
…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (I Thessalonians 5:18 ESV)
Ephesians 5:20 tells us that we should give thanks to God for all things, both the good things and the bad things. If we are following Him, everything works together to shape us into the people that will carry out God’s plan (Romans 8:28).
His Great Love
God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die on a cross in order to make possible a way for us to be reconciled to Him. Jesus did everything that it takes for us to be reunited in fellowship with God.
Our response is to believe and trust in Him. Then our lives will be all that they were created to be.
There is no happiness that compares to the happiness enjoyed by those committed to God.
Give Him thanks!