1 Chronicles 16:34

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever”

How often do you express your gratitude to God? More often than not instead of an attitude of gratitude for all that He has done we simply take God for granted. Instead of thanksgiving being our steady song it seems to have become our silent song. Today thanks seems to have been drowned out in a chorus of complaining. We are more often displeased with something than we are grateful, we are far less thankful than we should be. Preacher and scholar W. T. Purkiser said this about thanksgiving, “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” In 1 Chronicles 16:34 we come across the phrase “Give thanks to the Lord” which is repeated throughout the Old Testament, appearing 45 times in five different books. Like a battle cry it rallies the people of Israel to come and offer their sacrifice of praise to the Lord.

• Give thanks

The word that we translate as thanks in English means so much more in Hebrew. Here the word yadah means, “to make public acknowledgment” it is where we get our English word confess. It means to both confess the name of God, to publicly proclaiming His name and to confess sin. Giving thanks is an act of humbling ourselves before God and showing gratitude to Him for all of His bountiful blessings. Confessing the name of God means telling others about all that God has done for us, where confess our sins means telling God all that we have done against Him. It take courage to confess God before our peers but Jesus gives us a great promise in this area saying in Matthew 10:32 “whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” Praise is faith in action, for in order to praise God you must first believe in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”  Praise is a decision, are you diligently seek God through praise?

• Give thanks to the LORD

It is not enough just to be thankful, we need to be thankful to the Lord. Scripture makes it clear that we are to offer our thanks to the LORD, He is the only one who is worthy of our praised for He created everything. Paul as he preached to the men of Athens in Acts 17:24 explained that it was “God who made the world and everything in it.” He is the one who brought Egypt to its knees, defeating pharaoh and freeing the Israelites. He is the one who parted the Red sea and brought them in to the promise land. He is the One who sent His One and only Son Jesus to come and save us from our sin.  What do you need to thank God for? Thank Him for His power, thank Him for His person, thank Him for His provision, thank Him for His protection, thank Him for His presence, thank Him for His peace, and thank Him for His pardon. When you consider all that He has done for you why wouldn’t you choose to live a life of praise?

• Give thanks because He is good

We often use the word good to describe something as being of ok quality, as if it is secondary or not as superior. For example if I tell someone that they did a good job, it doesn’t carry the same weight as if I said that they did a great job. So when you say that God is good it just doesn’t seem to be good enough. If you look up the word good in a dictionary you will soon discover that there are multiple meanings for the same word. But the Bible is primarily concerned with the moral aspects of goodness, it refers to the holiness of God. We have a God who is good in:

Character

Good first and foremost describes the character of God. The truth is that God is good and He cannot be anything but good. He is our standard for goodness, we cannot make ourselves good, but God’s grace can change our hearts. We are called to grow in goodness, 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” God desires for us to be like Him. Second God is good in His:

Conduct

Because He is good, all that He does is also good. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Not only is He good in character and conduct but also in His:

Care

God’s cares for us is not just an attitude but an action, He willingly sent His Son to die for us so that we could be forgiven and He cares so much that He refuses to leave us were He found us. In Philippians 4:19 Paul proclaims that “this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” HE desires to supply all of our needs not some of them, and that means our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs.

• Give thanks because He loves us

The Word of God confirms that God’s love endures forever. There may be times in your life when you feel unworthy of His love but there will never be a time in your life when God does not love you. The Hebrew word for love is the same one that is used to describe God’s covenant relationship between Him and His people. It is through these covenants that God has revealed His faithful love to His people. With the ultimate example of His love being displayed in the new covenant, that was established through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. His love never fades or fails; it is a love that we can count on because it endures through all things for all time. That means that there has never been and never will be a time when God does not love you. His love even endures through those times when we rejected Him, or are living in rebellion against Him. Even when we don’t love ourselves and see self as unlovable, God still loves us. Are you giving thanks, and who are you giving thanks to? Are you giving thanks to God because He is good, for His character, His conduct and His care? Are you living a life of thankfulness because of His love? We have a God whose love endures through all time for all time.

Ephesians 5:19-20

“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Not only should our thanksgiving be expressed but it should be:

• Extensive

How far does your thanksgiving reach? As our thanksgiving expands it should include the blessings of God. Let me ask a question, how many of us give thanks to God for a sink full of dirty dishes, my guess not many. We see a mess but a sink full of dirty dishes usually means that we have been blessed with food to eat. Over two thirds of this world goes to bed hungry every night, yet we complain because after eating a great meal we have a few dishes to do. It’s easy to get caught up in the complaining were the only thing we can see is the mess and we miss the blessing. Often we prayer general even generic prayers, “God thanks for the blessings” but what are the specific blessings that we are thankful for? The old Hymn, “count your blessings” reminds us to name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done” Not only should our thankfulness include the blessings of life but also the burdens. This is a tough one and if we struggle to give thanks for the blessings we will most likely fail to thank in the burdens. Ephesians 5:20 says, “always giving thanks.” It would be easy to think that Paul as he peened these words made a mistake, or that this was easy for him to say. But Paul experienced many difficult burdens, he was run out of town, beaten, whipped, imprisoned, betrayed by friends, left naked, cold, hungry, shipwrecked, and stoned because of his faith. Yet he never stopped giving thanks. When it came to the burdens of this life Paul had a proper perspective. In Romans 8:18 he said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us” In 2 Corinthians, “That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” In Philippians 1:12 “Now I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel” Do you have a proper perspective when it comes to the pain and the problems of this life? When we do, we like Paul will be able to give thanks in all circumstances, even the difficult and dark days that we will face. Now we don’t have to be thankful for them but thankful in them, you see Paul is not calling us to be thankful for our problems but rather in them. We need to give thanks for the blessings and the burdens but also for the benefits. When the Israelites focused on what they didn’t have, they failed to see all that they did have. It amazes me that most Christians are constantly adding to their prayer list but rarely to their praise list. One of the reasons we are not thankful is that we focus on the problems of prayer more than the praise. Now I am not saying that we should not talk to God about our problems, I am saying that in reality we more to praise over than petition over. When you look at what He has done and what we have it far out ways what we don’t. As Christians we have more to cheer about than complain about. Not only should our thanksgiving be expressed and extensive but it is also:

• Expected

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Do you really want to know what God’s Will is for your life? Well here it is in the Armstrong paraphrase “God’s will for you is to live life as a winner, so stop whining and start worshipping,” God calls us to focus not on the challenging circumstances but on our conqueror Christ, because He knows that if we will that it will change our lives. You may not like to hear this but being thankful in all circumstances is the mark of a growing Christian. A baby is ungrateful, when they don’t feel well you can rock them and hold them for hours and when you put that baby down rather than appreciation and gratitude they tend to just cry and wail a little louder. Children have to be taught to be thankful. The mark of maturity isn’t so much about what you know but what happens to your worship when the winter winds blow and things go from bad to worse. What about you are you a fair weather worshipper or a fearless one? Mature Christians don’t waste there energy moaning and groaning they give God the glory. When we realize how blessed we are and express it in praise we will be growing and moving towards maturity. Not only is thankfulness a mark of a growing Christian but also of a giving Christian. When you truly comprehend all that God has done for you and how much he continues to do, it should move you to give back. Thanks giving should involve our time, talents and our treasures. The Wise men who came to worship baby Jesus used their talents not for gain but for God. They willingly sacrificed their time, in a grueling journey to glorify God, and they came prepared to present the King with their presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It amazes me how many Christians willingly give a good waitress a 15% tip yet struggle to give a good God 10% despite all the good gifts He has blessed us with. A growing Christian is not a moaner and a giving Christian is not a miser. If we are truly thankful then why would we hold back, after all “God loves a cheerful giver” Corinthians 9:7. Not only is thanksgiving the mark of a growing Christian and a giving Christian but it’s also the mark of a glowing Christian. Paul reminds us 2 Corinthians 4:8-18, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed…13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.” Paul doesn’t deny or dismiss the problems and the pressures of this life but he says that they don’t have to dominate us. What if Christians would stop getting so worked up over worry and start getting worked up over worship? When we talk about Moses coming down from Mount Sinai we tend to focus more on the ten commands he carried in stone than the change in his countenance. After spending time with God there was a glow. One of the reasons we don’t glow is that we don’t go to God and spend time with Him in worship. What kind of countenance do you have, is it a glowing one or a groaning one, do you glow or growl? It’s easy to get caught up in the complaining and end up with a critical spirit. Are you caught up in the pessimism or the praise? Why not take some time today to count your blessings and reflect on what the Lord has done.