Don't forget to say "Thank you"

Tomorrow is thanksgiving, but as I write that it makes me wonder what today was. Was not today supposed to be filled with thanksgiving as well? The obvious answer the biblical answer is yes. And it was to some degree, just as tomorrow will be to some degree. At least i recall saying thank you a couple times yesterday and even today. I think the great battle in our lives as believers is being honest enough to admit how much there is in this life we just take for granted. Things like family, friends, food to eat, nice homes to live in, children, grandchildren. We enjoy relatively good health, live in a free country, are able to read our bibles, worship, and witness without fear of imprisonment or worse. These are all good things, and there are many more to numerous to mention. James tells us “that every good thing comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning.” So all these good things are from God. My taking them for granted robs God of the praise and thanksgiving He so rightly deserves. So why do we do it? Why do we take all these good things for granted, why do we fail to give God the Thanksgiving for all these things. The answer is as sad as it is simple. The answer - We think we deserve all the good things we get. We fail to see ourselves as who we truly are and in light of what we truly deserve. We don’t thank our boss for giving us our paycheck. We deserve it. He owes it to us. And If I am to be honest with myself that is the attitude I carry around with me far to often when it comes to the good things God has brought into my life. I really believe I deserve them. They are not gifts of grace they are wages I think I deserve. But how deluded we can be. If you want to test yourself to see if this is true in you - take note of how you react when things don’t go like you think they should , or one of these good things is taken out of your life. If your like me you are tempted to react like we would if our boss said he was not going to pay us this week. We would be angry and upset, WE DESERVE TO BE PAID, YOU OWE IT TO ME. The reality is, we deserve nothing from God but judgement, but instead he gave us His Son to die in our place because he loves us. Then he blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, adopts us into his family, give us His Spirit to indwell us and empower us, and blesses us daily in ways to numerous to mention. And it is all because of HIS amazing grace not my merit. Thanksgiving should make us sit and reflect about all the good things in our life. They are all from God. They begin at the cross and flow outward from that. Without the cross we are lost, hell bound sinners. People who do no good, do not seek God but only the things God gives. People who are self-centered, self serving, self-legislating, self-deceived into believing we are something when in reality we are nothing. Paul said he would boast in nothing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a life understands what it means to give thanks. This thanksgiving don't’ just go through the motions of being thankful. May our thanksgiving flow from a heart touched by God’s love, changed by God’s grace and resting in his finished work on the cross, amazed at what God has done and continues to do in our lives. Give thanks …”for the Lord is Good, and HIs steadfast love endures forever.”