Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and our thoughts turn to a Thanksgiving feast, family, time off, football, and more. More importantly our thoughts need to be about gratitude. This is a virtue that doesn’t come naturally. Gratitude must be cultivated so it becomes a daily habit. Growing up I remember being reminded to say thank you and/or write thank you notes to those who gave a gift.
Why is gratitude important? Gratitude emerges from humility and humility flows from realizing that all we have and all we are come from the gracious and loving hand of God our Creator. That being said, we recognize everything is a gift and not something we are entitled to. When that dawns upon us our natural response is gratitude. To help put it in perspective, the opposite of gratitude is pride, the root cause behind Satan’s fall and Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience and rebellion. (Ezekiel 28:12-17)
The Bible is filled with passages referring to giving thanks and praise. Psalm 95:2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. As we navigate our way through the trials and difficulties of everyday life remember to look for God in the ordinary, common, and routine things such as: church, family, stars of heaven, earth, home, salvation, the Bible, flowers and so much more. Stop, and appreciate the small things in life as a gift and give thanks.
Have a Blessed Thanksgiving.
