“Thanksgiving” is the act of offering thanks or being thankful. Thankfulness is associated with the recognition of God’s provision, deliverance, or character. Each of us should take a closer look at the many blessings we have received and every day should be filled with thankfulness. All of our thanksgiving should take into account all of the wonderful things that God has done. We are extremely blessed.
Colossians 3:15 NKJV And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Colossians 4:2 NKJV Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
Those of us who are living in covenant with God are blessed in every way.
God has promised to bless us coming and going. He said He would bless us in the city and in the country. He blesses the labor of our hands. He blesses our children and our possessions. God’s covenant with His people is filled with His blessings. Give Him thanks.
God’s goodness and blessing help us know that we are in His favor.
We have come to depend on His mercy, grace and goodness that is renewed every morning. We depend on the fact that God fights for us and brings us into His blessings and favor. Included in that is the covering and protection that He gives. We trust in His blessings on our lives, our children and our possessions. We thrive because God blesses us and gives us His bounty.
Give Him thanks.
Offering thanks to God was introduced in Leviticus 7:11-15 when the Law of Thanksgiving was associated with the peace offerings and sacrifices to God.
When the offering for peace with God was made, it was to be offered with “the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” The sacrifice of thanksgiving was a public proclamation of Who God is and what He does.
This thanksgiving took a prominent place in the Psalms.
Psalm 103:1-5 NLT Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
Every believer should be encouraged to give thanksgiving to God personally and publicly as the people of God.
We know and have received His many blessings.
The traditional Jewish standard in the Torah prohibited anyone from enjoying any pleasure until they first offered a “blessing” to God.
Rabbinical Jewish texts viewed the blessings to God as a thanksgiving for His goodness and love that make every pleasure available. They found it appropriate to give thanks to God for everything they enjoyed. When we consider God’s goodness, we have much to praise and bless Him for. We praise Him for every blessing and good thing that we have received.
Psalm 100:1-5 NKJV Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Jesus took thankfulness to a new and higher level by offering thanksgiving to God on several occasions.
Before His miracles, Jesus gave thanks to God. He gave thanks to God for hiding His plans from the wise and prudent and revealing them to the little children, (Matthew 11:25). Before He went to the Father with petition or intercession, Jesus gave thanks. Before He called Lazarus from the dead, Jesus offered thanks to God.
John 11:41-42 NKJV Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
When the multitudes followed Jesus into the wilderness, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Seeing that they were hungry, Jesus took the loaves and fishes, looked up into heaven and “gave thanks.”
Matthew 15:36-37 NKJV And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.
Jesus gave thanks to God as the provider of the food for the multitude.
The language here is not describing a blessing over the food, but a thanksgiving to God for providing it for the multitude. The Lord recognized that every good thing comes down from the Father in heaven. The whole idea behind the thanksgiving and the provision was God’s supply of the “bread of life.” Jesus was not just thankful for the meal in the wilderness that supplied their immediate need, He was looking at the Father’s solution for much more. He was giving thanks to God for providing the real solution for all mankind. Jesus is the Living Bread that has come down from God out of heaven.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke we are given an account of the Last Supper, (Matthew 26:17-29; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-38).
During the meal, Jesus offered thanks before they ate the bread and again before they drank the fruit of the vine. The thanksgiving was more than a blessing over the food and drink. Jesus was thanking God the Father for His provision, blessing, and supply. He was seeing much more than the bread and the cup. As He was looking at the bread and the cup, He was thinking about His own body and blood. He was offering thanksgiving for the provision that the Father made that would provide salvation to mankind. Jesus knew the depth of the Father’s love that would provide so richly for all of our need.
The practice of thanksgiving played a necessary role in the early church.
Often the Apostle Paul gave thanks and encouraged believers to be thankful.
Ephesians 5:19-20 NKJV Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Thanksgiving is a necessary part of the believer’s unshakable life.
We should worship God in the Spirit, giving thanks. We should give thanks to God for everything. We should recognize God’s will when we give thanks. The church is encouraged to pray always in every situation and give thanksgiving to God. Giving thanks is a natural characteristic of God’s children. We give thanks because we recognize God’s handiwork in everything that we do. We rejoice in God’s goodness and blessing. We take note of the fact that God is carefully watching over our lives and is leading us by His hand. This giving thanks precedes receiving answers because we have confidence in God our Father. We are confident that He will withhold no good thing from us. I have seen enough of God’s faithful track record. God’s design for your life is to conquer the mountains of difficulties that are before you with faith in His promise and word that has been spoken to you. We can face all of these things with faith and thanksgiving because we know the character and nature of our God.
Giving thanks will continue when we stand with Christ in the throne room of heaven.
In John’s visions, the four living creatures and the church give thanks and worship to Him who sits on the throne, (Revelation 4:9-11). In Revelation 7:9-12, the multitudes from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues worship with the angels, elders, and four living creatures. Isaiah 6:1-4 said when the seraphim cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of host; The whole earth is full of His glory!” The posts of the door of the temple in heaven were shaken. Can you imagine the sound of praise and worship when all of the saints of all of the ages along with the hosts of the angels sing praise and thanksgiving to God.
Revelation 7:12 NKJV They will fall on their faces before the throne and worship God saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Each of us should offer praise and thanksgiving for everything that God has done. Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.