James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
As we leave the formal Thanksgiving Season and proceed toward the rush of Christmas, pause long enough to consider the impact of Thanksgiving. What is your takeaway? Do you love God more for His gifts or for His personhood? Does the week of Thanksgiving give you a greater hunger to know Him and to spend time with Him or was it just your requisite moment of thanks that is set aside as you get back to living?
It is easy to regard the gifts God gives and spend our times cultivating and enjoying those gifts to the exclusion of the Giver. That is when your gifts become your idols.
Let Thanksgiving be a beginning. This Christmas Season purpose in your heart to follow hard after the Giver. If Christ really is the most important thing in your life, spend time FIRST with Him. Speak of Him FIRST with others. Keep him FIRST in all things. —René Smith
The holiday presents itself as a fitting resolution to the year’s highs and lows, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. It’s timed perfectly to allow for restful reflection before the generally happy chaos of Christmas. But what if Thanksgiving was meant to be a beginning, and not just another over-fed ending?
Thanksgiving isn’t ever the end in the Christian life because gratitude cannot bear the weight of that responsibility. Gratitude is good — and a means to something greater. It’s meant to fuel our faith in God and deepen our love for God, the Giver. Gratitude does look back, but it’s only a matter of time before it has the Christian looking forward. John Piper says,
The Bible rarely, if ever, motivates Christian living with gratitude. Yet this is almost universally presented in the church as the “driving force in authentic Christian living.” I agree that gratitude is a beautiful and utterly indispensible Christian affection. No one is saved who doesn’t have it. But you will search the Bible in vain for explicit connections between gratitude and obedience. (Future Grace, 3)
God means for our appreciation for all he has done to propel us to believe in all that he will do, and to live more fully for his glory as your greatest treasure. It’s the whole shape of the Christian heart and life. God does not bless you simply so that you’ll be filled with thanks and give him recognition, but so that you’ll be filled with faith and joy in him. -Marshall Segal
The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Psalm 126:3
Megan Hill
Thanking God together is an effective guard against ingratitude. On our own, we may be tempted to forget, to take for granted, and to ignore the God from whom every good and perfect gift comes (James 1:17). On our own, we may fall into the ways of the ungodly, who do not “honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom. 1:21). Together, though, surrounded by the thanks of others, we join in and are thankful.
What are your traditions of collective thanks? There are many ways to stop and actively praise God for His wonderful works during our gatherings and celebrations. Make Him the focus, the Giver of all Good Gifts!!
Psalm 100:4–5
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. —Joe Thorn
Does gratitude characterize your thoughts of God? Thankfulness is a good test of your faith. Its absence demonstrates that your faith is more lip service than experiential knowledge. Your days, whether easy or difficult, should be filled with thanksgiving because while life changes drastically, your God remains the same forever. He is constant—constantly good, loving, and faithful.
Acts 2:41–47
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles` teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The early Christian church was a rejoicing, praising church that is filled with thanksgiving, magnifying the grace and glory of God. They were a thankful people. But why was this? . . . What is a Christian? Well, Christians are men and women who know that they are what they are by the grace of God. Their sins are forgiven. Why? . . . Christians know that they owe everything to the grace of God in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They have received it all as a free gift . . . Now if you can believe a thing like that and not feel grateful and thankful, then I do not understand you. It is impossible.
"What hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7
“Gratitude is the proper response to an abundance of gifts. Gratitude is the posture of the soul that most readily increases receptivity. Gratitude demands humility, since only those who acknowledge their dependence, their need, and their delight in the goodness and kindness of another can be grateful. Give thanks always and for everything. And be specific.” Joe Rigney
God has given us all things to enjoy. Be specific this week in your expressions of thanks to the Lord. Cultivate the posture of gratitude and praise God for the gifts we enjoy.
To accept Christ as our Saviour, Lord, and Master, to strive sincerely and devotedly to follow in the path that He has mapped out for us in this life, is the most wonderful, the most reasonable, and the most satisfactory way to live. It means peace in our hearts, peace of mind, contentment, happiness, hope, and an assurance of a life beyond the grave that shall never end. What a glorious plan God has made for all who will love and serve Him with all of their hearts!
We all have to die, which is a proven fact. What then! Why try to get around it? It seems that every person should open his heart and mind to the Word of God and accept Christ with an open mind and consider it the greatest privilege in this world to live for Christ, the Creator of all mankind. We should be like Job of old who said, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:12.
Many times we read in the New Testament that “it came to pass.” The prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled. Read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and he describes Christ’s crucifixion and atonement work with such accuracy of detail that the inspiration of the prophet is assured. He wrote this 712 years before Christ was born. He only had from the prophets before him the fact that God had told them that God was going to send a Messiah. So only God could inspire Him to write in such detail about his sufferings and death.
Oh, there are so many proofs that the Bible is true! Jesus spoke about the Old Testament, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” John 5:46, 47. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. He wrote things that were told to him from the beginning. It all harmonizes with the rest of the Bible. The early people were careful to keep accounts and told them to their children. They were written when writing was available (or began).
The Key to Peace by Anna Marie Miles
Link for book in bio.
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In studying the Bible, we find a Unity of Thought which makes us know that One Mind inspired the writing and arrangement of all the books. Truly it is THE WORD OF GOD! It is different from any other book in the world. It is a divine book and not just a human book. We reject, with abhorrence, that it is like other books.
The Bible is an account of God’s efforts to reveal Himself to mankind. It is a record of His dealings with man and His revealed will concerning him. The Bible is for instruction and guidance in all the ways of life. From all the facts that the Apostle Paul gathered he said, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” II Tim. 3:16. Thus we find it to be true.
The special messengers of God, by whom the Bible has been written, were given the power of performing miracles, by which their inspiration was attested and their messages made authoritative; but the “more sure word of PROPHECY” (II Peter 1:19) furnished the greatest external proof of its inspiration. To this, more than to anything else, Christ and the apostles made their constant appeal. Matthew, narrating the deeds of the Saviour, gives us the standing phrase, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets” while Peter affirms, in words unmistakable, that the “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II Peter 1:21.
Christ is the center and heart of the whole Bible. The Old Bible or Testament is an account of a Nation. The New Testament is an account of a Man, who is Jesus Christ. The Old Testament foretold Christ’s coming and founded and nurtured a nation by God to bring Christ into the world. There is no book like the Bible.
The Key to Peace by Anna Marie Miles
Download this book free for personal use. Kindle version available on the website.
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