GOD’S WILL FOR YOU!

November 30 

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name.  Psalm 100:4

Our nation has established a national day to express thanks to God for His blessings.  It should be second nature for those who have experienced God’s amazing grace, mercy and salvation.  In case we forget to be thankful, the Lord has given us one special command out of the 800+ single New Testament imperatives: “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  

Notice that our gratitude to God is all-inclusive: “In everything give thanks…”  Ephesians 5:20 stretches us even further with “Always giving thanks for all things.”  Really?  Always?  For every single thing?  Is God serious??  We might prefer to say “When I feel like it!” or “When everything’s going my way!”  Can we actually be thankful in and for deaths, sicknesses, bills, trials, irritating people, bad weather, accidents, tragedies, etc.?  Yes!  Even though it is not our natural inclination,  thankfulness is imperative for all believers.  Left to our own selfishness we are prone to complain and grumble about most anything.  Among all the characteristics of humans in the last days (and we are there!), we find “ungrateful” (2 Timothy 3:2).  As believers in Christ Jesus the desire to praise and thank our Father for all He has done, is doing and will do in our lives hopefully is evident.  We should all be living, breathing thank-you notes, giving gratitude to God and others! 

When we truly know Christ as Savior, there is always something to be thankful for even in disappointing times.  May your prayer this Thanksgiving be “Lord, You have given me so much.  Please give me one more thing: a thankful heart!”   

Bob Kulp