"Give Thanks"

We celebrate various holidays during the calendar year. These holidays appeal to a wide variety of personality types.

"New Years Day" is for optimists
"Valentines Day" is for lovers
"April Fools Day" is for out of work clowns to strut their stuff
"Christmas Day" is for giving or getting, depending where we are on the maturity meter.
"Thanksgiving Day" is for thinkers

Thanksgiving has rightly been called the thinking mans holiday.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

The Bible repeatedly calls us to "Give thanks with a grateful heart" a heart that thinks about

God's goodness to us
God's steadfast love that endures forever
God's undeserved blessing
God's faithfulness to all generation
God's mercies that are new every morning
God's forgiveness that sets the captive free
God's Son, Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again that we might have everlasting life.
God's provisions - spouse, children, food, church family, fellowship, friendships,
God gives us freely all things to enjoy
God's peace
God's joy
God's love
God's precious promises
God's Spirit that indwells us and comforts and strengthens us every day and every hour.
God"s prepared place for his children
God's soon return to this world as the undisputed "King of Kings and Lord of Lords"

The Hymn writer tells us to count our blessings name them one by one. Not a bad idea. Think about all the blessings we have in Christ Jesus, blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing.

Thanksgiving means we think about who God is and about who we are and about what we deserve and all we have in spite of what we deserve - all because of God's Amazing Grace.
Only thinking humble people can truly give thanks and mean it.

"From a heart overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honor and glorify God by gratefully offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God of grace and glory"

So this Thanksgiving let us thoughtfully, prayerfully and humbly give thanks with a grateful heart.