Make Every Day Thanksgiving Day – You’ll Be Grateful You Did

Practice Gratitude - It Opens the Door To More of God's Goodness

Today is Thanksgiving Day, so offer thanks to God with your whole heart! It will not only make God smile, it will do you some good, too. Bruce Chapman said it well: “Gratitude has been called the gateway to the virtues. As Cicero put it, ‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all others,’ opening the heart to deeper appreciation, compassion, repentance, forgiveness, generosity and wisdom. Giving thanks should be cultivated as a habit. It is a kind of therapy for the spirit.” Try some “thanks therapy” today – you’ll be grateful you did.

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 17:15-17

One of the lepers, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?”

Every generation of parents ask a question of their children. It’s more of a prompting than a question. After receiving a gift or a favor, parents ask, “What do you say?” Of course, the expected response is, “thank you!”

That routine was repeated in my home when I was a child. My mother would ask me, “What do you say to your grandmother for her Velveeta, Spam and lima bean casserole?” Now they didn’t really want my honest opinion here—they would have gone postal if I would have said, “Grammie, what in the name of heaven were you thinking? You shouldn’t ever be allowed to prepare meals again!” They didn’t really care what I thought; they simply wanted a response of gratitude to show my acknowledgment of Grammie’s kindness and effort.

Even if children don’t feel gratitude, parents want them to learn to offer thanks simply because it’s the right thing to do. Why? Simply because every human being lives with a debt of gratitude, owing thanks to someone for something. Of course, parents hope their kids won’t just parrot words of gratitude; they hope that the exercise of gratitude now will one day produce authentically grateful people.

And that is exactly what our Heavenly Father hopes for each of us! That is why you can’t go very far into the Bible without a reference or an admonition to be thankful, as in this story of the ten lepers.

The ability to express gratitude is one of the fundamental signs of a redeemed life and a growing spirituality. To give thanks is one of the highest callings we have and one of the most self-benefiting things we can do. It keeps us from being self-absorbed. It produces an eternal perspective. It reminds us of how truly blessed we really are. It creates a perspective that sees that all of life is a gift.

At the end of each day G. K. Chesterton would say, “Here ends another day, during which I have had eyes, ears, hands [to experience this] great world around me. Tomorrow begins another day. Why am I allowed two?” That’s why Ambrose, Bishop of Milan said, “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” It keeps you focused on God’s goodness and not on yourself. And best of all, gratitude opens the door for more. The great preacher Andrew Murray said, “To be thankful for what we have received…is the surest way to receive more.”

So why not practice a little gratitude today! You’ll be grateful you did!

Thrive:Write a list of 10 things from this past week for which you are thankful. Then give thanks for them.

Give Thanks

“Be joyful always; pray continually;
give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

That’s what the Apostle Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:16-18. Be joyful—always! Be prayerful—always! Be grateful—always! That’s quite a challenge, wouldn’t you agree? In fact, I would say it is next to impossible to live that command out continually. That is, unless you practice slowing to view all the reasons why God has given you to be joyful, prayerful and thankful—which is the genius of having a holiday like Thanksgiving.

There’s a chorus we used to sing in our church called Hallelujah, Thank You Lord. The song has a line that says, “Who could ever list your miracles? Who could praise you half enough?”

That’s so true! How can any of us narrow down all the many reasons we have for thanksgiving to just a few words? Yet whenever I begin to count the many blessings in my life—like family and friends and the fellowship of the church, prosperity and provision, health and wholeness, and so many other wonderful blessings that come in the form of people, things and experiences—I always come down to this bottom line reason for my gratitude:

God’s grace and mercy in my life!

That’s really the reason I’m most thankful.

In Lamentations 3:22, the prophet Jeremiah summed up this whole idea of grace and mercy in one of my favorite verses, where he wrote these words:

Because of the Lord’s great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.

Think about it: If it weren’t for the great love of the Lord, none of us would be able to sit at the Thanksgiving table with our loved ones to recount our reasons for gratitude. That’s God’s mercy. In his rich and unending mercy, God didn’t give us what we really deserve: judgment and complete separation from his presence.

So on the one hand, I’m sure thankful for what I don’t have, what I didn’t get, what I do really deserve: God’s wrath poured out on me.

On the other hand, I’m thankful for what I did get—and what I got is what I really didn’t deserve: God’s favor in the form of his love, his friendship, his protection and his provision both for this life and for the next.

Unlimited mercy and undeserved grace! I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that—and I don’t really want to.

And that’s why I am most grateful.

“Gratitude has been called the gateway to the virtues. As Cicero put it, ‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all others,’ opening the heart to deeper appreciation, compassion, repentance, forgiveness, generosity and wisdom. Giving thanks should be cultivated as a habit. It is a kind of therapy for the spirit.” ~Bruce Chapman

Thanks!

Read Psalm 136

Featured Verse: Psalm 136:1

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.

There’s a chorus we used to sing in our church called Hallelujah, Thank You Lord.  The song has a line that says, “Who could ever list your miracles?  Who could praise you half enough?” 

That’s so true!  How can any of us narrow down all the many reasons we have for thanksgiving to just a few words? Yet whenever I begin to count the many blessings in my life—like family and friends and the fellowship of the church, prosperity and provision, health and wholeness, and so many other wonderful blessings that come in the form of people, things and experiences—I always come down to  this bottom line reason for my gratitude:

God’s grace and mercy in my life! 

That’s really the reason I’m most thankful.

In Lamentations 3:22, the prophet Jeremiah summed up this whole idea of grace and mercy in one of my favorite verses, where he wrote these words:

Because of the Lord’s great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.

Think about it:  If it weren’t for the great love of the Lord, none of us would be able to sit at the Thanksgiving table with our loved ones to recount our reasons for gratitude.  That’s God’s mercy.  In his rich and unending mercy, God didn’t give us what we really deserve: judgment and complete separation from his presence.

So on the one hand, I’m sure thankful for what I don’t have, what I didn’t get, what I do really deserve: God’s wrath poured out on me.

On the other hand, I’m thankful for what I did get—and what I got is what I really didn’t deserve: God’s favor in the form of his love, his friendship, his protection and his provision both for this life and for the next.

Unlimited mercy and undeserved grace! I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that—and I don’t really want to.

And that’s why I am most grateful.

“Gratitude has been called the gateway to the virtues. As Cicero put it, ‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all others,’ opening the heart to deeper appreciation, compassion, repentance, forgiveness, generosity and wisdom. Giving thanks should be cultivated as a habit. It is a kind of therapy for the spirit.” ~Bruce Chapman

Thank You

Read: Luke 17

One of the lepers, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:15-17, NLT)

Every generation of parents ask a question of their children.  It’s more of a prompting than a question.  After receiving a gift or a favor, parents ask, “What do you say?” Of course, the expected response is, “thank you!”

That routine was repeated in my home when I was a child. My mother would ask me, “What do you say to your grandmother for her Velveeta, Spam and lima bean casserole?” Now they didn’t really want my honest opinion here—they would have gone postal if I would have said, “Grammie, what in the name of heaven were you thinking?  You shouldn’t ever be allowed to prepare meals again!” They didn’t really care what I thought; they simply wanted a response of gratitude to show my acknowledgment of Grammie’s kindness and effort.

Even if children don’t feel gratitude, parents want them to learn to offer thanks simply because it’s the right thing to do.  Why?  Simply because every human being lives with a debt of gratitude, owing thanks to someone for something.  Of course, parents hope their kids won’t just parrot words of gratitude; they hope that the exercise of gratitude now will one day produce authentically grateful people.

And that is exactly what our Heavenly Father hopes for each of us! That is why you can’t go very far into the Bible without a reference or an admonition to be thankful, as in this story of the ten lepers.

The ability to express gratitude is one of the fundamental signs of a redeemed life and a growing spirituality. To give thanks is one of the highest callings we have and one of the most self-benefiting things we can do.  It keeps us from being self-absorbed. It produces an eternal perspective.  It reminds us of how truly blessed we really are. It creates a perspective that sees that all of life is a gift.

At the end of each day G. K. Chesterton would say, “Here ends another day, during which I have had eyes, ears, hands [to experience this] great world around me.  Tomorrow begins another day.  Why am I allowed two?” That’s why Ambrose, Bishop of Milan said, “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” It keeps you focused on God’s goodness and not on yourself.  And best of all, gratitude opens the door for more.  The great preacher Andrew Murray said,  “To be thankful for what we have received…is the surest way to receive more.”

So why not practice a little gratitude today!  You’ll be grateful you did!

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all others.” —Cicero

What If God Took Over?

Write a list of 10 things from this past week for which you are thankful.  Then give thanks for them.