Thanksgiving: April 30, 2010

April 30. TODAYS WORD FOR FRIDAY APRIL 30, 2010.

THANKSGIVING

DEFINITION:

The act of giving thanks; an expression of thanks especially to God.

SCRIPTURE:

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. Psalm 100:4.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The apostle Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:18 that “In everything give thanks.” That does not mean that we have to be thankful for everything. We do not have to be thankful for bad circumstances but we can be thankful in the bad circumstances because the Lord can use the resulting difficulties for good. Our praise and thanksgiving to God should not depend on our circumstances.

In his letter to Philemon the apostle Paul writes about his runaway slave Onesimus. Onesimus had met Paul and found the Lord. When Paul was imprisoned, Onesimus had helped him and Paul was thankful for him. He wanted Philemon who was also a Christian to be thankful for the outcome of this circumstance. Paul writes Philemon, “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good, no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.”

Knowing that God can use all things for good is more than enough for us to give thanks in everything. God has not promised to keep us from the storms of life but He will keep us through them.

When the American colonies were being developed, one man said to the pioneers that they were spending way too much time on their problems. He said it was time for them to focus on their blessings thus the first Thanksgiving came to pass. As believers we need to take time every day to focus on our blessings and not on the problems we face. If we do such, God will do miracles for us.

In Deuteronomy 9, we read of God’s reminder to Israel why they would be successful. God wanted to remind them that He was leading them into the Promised Land to fulfill His purpose and promises. He reminded them that they would succeed because of Him and not because of their own righteousness. He knew that they would be tempted not to be grateful after their prosperity.

Ungratefulness is a problem and a temptation for us today. If our endeavors are successful we need to make certain that we are thankful to God for His goodness, help and blessing. We do not need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful.

The scriptures give us many passages that remind us to give thanks to God. In I Corinthians 15:57 it says thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in II Corinthians we have two verses. In 2:14 we are to give thanks to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. And in 9:15 Paul says: Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

In Hebrews 12:28 we read, “let us be thankful, and so worship God.” We are to worship God with praise and thanksgiving.

Do you show thanksgiving to God everyday of your life? We challenge you to respond by the way you act and talk daily as the words of Psalm 100:4 (above under scripture) tells us. Start each day by entering into His gates with thanksgiving --- your personal time for prayer and reading God’s Word – and then throughout the whole day be thankful for all that God has and is doing for you.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.

PRAYER:

We have so much to thank You for. We thank You for Your creation, for the stars in the sky and the water in the seas. We thank You for the blessings in life that You give us every day. But most important of all we thank You for sending Your Son to this earth to pay the penalty for my sins. Thank You that He is my mediator between us and that He is preparing a place for me to spend an eternity in heaven.