Thanks Giving & Thanks Living

Thanks Giving & Thanks Living

Things to be thankful for

The freedom and liberty to worship God without government oppression.

The freedom to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

The forgiveness, mercy, and grace, that comes from God.

The love of God which reconciles me to him.

The transforming power of God which make all things new.

All the provision of life, that comes from God.

I’m thankful that wherever I go, my Lord is with me.

When my heart aches, Jesus understands.

The promises of forgiveness, and that he will never leave me.

All the abundant life that comes from Christ. Exp.: My health and spiritual wealth.

That I can sit down to a warm meal whenever I want to, and eat too much when millions around the world have gnawing pangs of hunger?

All the opportunities that this country affords me.

All my friends and family.

A safe comfortable home, with all the modern convinces we have.

I don’t have to ride a donkey or bicycle, I have reliable transportation.

The joy that passes understanding.

Do I deserve all that God has given me? No.

• Why me and not the other millions?

Why was I born in a land I didn’t build, in a prosperity that I didn’t create and enjoy a freedom that I didn’t establish?

We sit comfortably in our own living room when their are homeless without shelter.

We enjoy a choice of meals, and some go to sleep hungry with nothing to eat.

We enjoy entertainment, while other are just surviving with little quality of life.

We have everything and don’t thank God

1. It is so easy to find something, anything, to complain about.

2. Many take the credit instead of giving it to God.

3. All we have comes from the grace of God

4. The problem is that most of us have more than we need. We have overlooked our need to be grateful for everything both great and small.

It’s disheartening when children of God deliberately reject this privilege and wantonly absent themselves from the public assembly God has ordained for His glory and our good.

Ps 100:1

1. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

2. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Consider briefly the significance of Thanks Living:

It improves our perspective about our welfare

It encourages others in their spiritual development.

It shows the world where my priorities are.

It is one means of expressing my love for God.

It is an avenue God has provided by which I can praise His name.

It is the offering of spiritual sacrifices.

It is a way of showing my thanksgiving to God for all He has done for me.

It is a period of communion with God with the world shut out entirely.

Thanks Living comes from an unshakable confidence in God’s wisdom, power, and goodness no matter what our circumstances may be.

So little place for Thanks Living

Many have an impoverished and stunted spiritual life, because there is little place for gratitude.

Many prayers are self-centered seeking to gain, instead of thanking God because we have gained.

1 Thess 5:18 KJV

18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Corrie Ten Boom

In her classic autobiography The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells of the time she and her sister were forced to take off all their clothes during Nazi inspections at a death camp.

Miss ten Boom stood in line feeling forsaken and defiled. Suddenly she remembered that Jesus hung naked on the cross. Struck with wonder and worship during that seemingly forsaken moment, ten Boom leaned forward and whispered to her sister, "Betsie, they took his clothes, too." Betsie gasped and said, "Oh, Corrie, and I never thanked him."

Thanks Living does not require bounty--just recognition of what our Savior has already done.

Thanks Living is active gratitude.

It is thanking God for the gift of life by living it triumphantly.

It is thanking God for your talents and abilities by accepting them as obligations to be invested for the common good.

It is thanking God for all that men and women have done for you by doing things for others.

It is thanking God for happiness by striving to make others happy.

It is thanking God for beauty by helping to make the world more beautiful.

It is thanking God for inspiration by trying to be an inspiration to others.