What are you thankful for?
This is probably a question you have heard or thought about a lot this past week.
With Thanksgiving being just a few days ago, I thought about this a lot and I started feeling convicted. Why am I most thankful during Thanksgiving? Why am I not thankful every day?
If you are honest with yourself this might be something you do too. Why does it take a holiday for us to thank God for everything he has done? If you sit back and think about all God has done and will continue to do for us, how can we not thank him?
Jesus literally died on the cross in our place. He brought us from death to life. He offers us his grace and mercy every single day. There is nothing that we can do to separate us from the love of God. These things are just the tip of the iceberg. We should be in awe. We should be thanking Him every second of every day because we are so undeserving.
It is easy to be thankful on Thanksgiving, but I want to learn to give thanks every day. Whether it is a good or bad day, there is always something to be grateful for. It is easy to give thanks on the good days, but not so much on the bad days. It is easy to complain and ask God, “Why me?” on the bad days, but I want to learn to find the good and give thanks even when things are difficult. No matter what life throws our way there is one thing that will never change, and that is how much God loves us.
When things get hard and you are facing trials, find joy and give thanks during them. I know it seems hard and maybe impossible, but remember that God is using these trials to help you grow and bring you closer to him. James 1:2-4 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I want to be intentional about giving thanks every day, not just on Thanksgiving. I do not want to just say a quick prayer and list off the same things I am thankful for every day. I don’t want to have surface level gratitude. I want to have a grateful heart, because everything we do flows from the heart.
I am challenging myself to wake up every day and have a heart posture of thankfulness, and I want to challenge you to do the same. Really think back and reflect on your life. Think about how blessed you are, and how loved you are by the Creator of everything. He sent His son to die for us, and if you were the only person on earth He still would have done the same thing. God is more than worthy of our praise, so let's give it to him every day, not just on Thanksgiving.
“Genuine thankfulness is an act of the heart’s affections, not an act of the lips’ muscles.”
- John Piper
“A spirit of thankfulness is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian whose heart is attuned to the Lord. Thank God in the midst of trials and every persecution.” - Billy Graham
By Peyton Thompson
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