Perspective On Thanksgiving Series

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This blog gives us three simple perspective on thanksgiving. Be expressive & Be expansive.

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Ephesians 5:19-20 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Pray

We have come to the second last day of 2012. How thankful we must be for every day of this year. Today, I want to present you a right perspective on thanksgiving so that we can end this year with thanks and enter 2013 with praise.

Illustration: Rudyard Kipling was a great writer and poet who made a lot of money for his writings. One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, “Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word; Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, “Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, “Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words.” Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it, folded it up, and put it in his pocket and said, “Thanks.”

He’s right! The word ‘thanks’ is certainly more than a hundred dollar word. I would say it is more like a million dollar word. Thank you is one word that is too seldom heard, too rarely spoken, and too often forgotten. If we would all adopt an attitude of thanksgiving into our lives – our lives would be changed. We would cherish each day.

The Bible speaks to us from various portions to have a thankful heart. While the worldly thanksgiving is for benefits received, the Word of God insists us to always give thanks to God in all circumstances of life. Both in Ephesians 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul is talking about thanksgiving.

Ephesians 5:19-20 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

It sounds as if Paul is talking about a church service here, but he isn’t. He is talking about a continual attitude of a Christian – an attitude of the heart to be thankful in all circumstances

If giving thanks is important, why are people not thankful to others? I believe there are at least three human attitudes that steal away our gratitude. They are:

A proud heart. This is the attitude that says nobody ever gave me anything; I worked hard for everything I have. For years I studied hard and now it is finally paying off. With this kind of attitude, we feel that we have no one to thank but ourselves.

A critical spirit. Another attitude that keeps us from being thankful is a critical spirit or constant complaining. Instead of being grateful, this person will always find something to complain about.

Illustration:

1. A lady known as a grumbler constantly complained about everything. At last her pastor thought he had found something about which she would be happy because that year the harvest of her potatoes was the finest in the town. When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, “You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.” “True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need the bad ones to feed the pigs.” Some cannot enjoy life and be thankful because of a negative attitude.

2. We happened to go to a beautiful house once. They brought the tea and snacks and as we were having them I commented, “Sister you have a beautiful house.” She said, “Pastor, you do not know the trouble to maintain this house.” God blessed them with a beautiful house but they find something to complain about God’s blessings.

An attitude of carelessness. Many times we are so busy that we do not care to acknowledge what God has done in our lives.

Illustration: One lady asked the other, “Do you take time to look at the stars and thank God for the beauty he displays at night?” The other woman replied, “If the stars only came out once a year, we would stay out all night to watch them. But they are there every night and there is nothing special about them.”