Only about five more days and most of us will be sitting at that Thanksgiving table with family and friends enjoying turkey and all that goes with that meal. I’d mention my favorite food items for Thanksgiving but then we’d all get very hungry now. Thank you to all of the mothers and grandmothers who in most cases do most of the work for this annual meal. We are like many of you, who also have family coming from far away, such as our daughters, their husbands and yes, those wonderful grandchildren from Virginia and Tennessee and locally too, that we don’t get to see nearly enough. This all adds to the blessings. It also makes for a great Thanksgiving week. But back to our theme, why aren’t some people more thankful all year round? Thankfulness and appreciation should be a godly habit all year round.

The Bible tells us in First Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Two verses before that it says in 5:16, “Rejoice always” and also in Philippians 4:4 it states, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice in the Lord.” Psalm 107:1 – tells us, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His loving kindness is everlasting.”

So we can see from the Scriptures that the Lord desires for us, as believers, to be a thankful people with an attitude of gratefulness and appreciation for our God for who He is and all that He has done. We are to be a people of joy and contentment even when times are very difficult. God certainly knows we will all have times of pain, suffering, sadness and very difficult trials, but as believers we can look at even those times through an eternal lens. Second Corinthians 4:17-18 says, “For our momentary (temporary, present troubles, transitory burden, earthly problems) light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. As huge and real as our problems and suffering are in this world for the believer, it will be far outweighed by the rewards, blessings, glory and joy of eternity in Heaven with Jesus and the saints. Thus we know as believers that all for us has purpose and meaning, unlike those who do not know God, which as Ecclesiastes says is vanity, meaninglessness and hopelessness.

We are not always going to be as the expression goes, “on the mountain top” and smiling happy and ecstatic. But for the believer, even when tough times come, we can still have that inner spirit of thankfulness, contentment and the joy of the Lord. The Lord desires that of us. It has to do with obedience and not feelings and just our emotions. We cannot just base things on what we feel like doing. Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the spirit-filled life and some of the nine items, the fruit of that are joy, patience, kindness, goodness. Some days, we do not feel like being those things anymore than we feel like cleaning up a huge mess, having a root canal or surgery. But God desires obedience and a heart of thankfulness, appreciation and gratitude and the items of Galatians 5:22 even when we don’t feel like it. Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is my strength and that leads to a thankful heart.”

One of my grandchildren, and we do love them all dearly, has an expression that is used at times. “This is my best day ever!” or “This is my worst day ever!” They can be having a great morning and something really good happens and they’ll say, “This is my best day ever!” Then, on that same day, if just one little thing happens later on which is bad, they’ll say, “This is my worst day ever!” Some adults are like that, too. Yes, moods and feelings can change quickly. I’m pretty sure our grandchild will grow out of that as they get older, otherwise it is not a good strategy for a life of peace, contentment and joy. God desires for we as believers to have a commitment to obedience and being a thankful people even when the circumstances are adverse.

Be Thankful all year round. There is always so much to be thankful for. First of all ,we should be thankful for God. Be thankful for God, our Father, the Almighty, our Creator for just who He is. The God that He is of the Bible, who is perfect, loving, holy, truth, merciful, gracious, compassion, just, patient, all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent and so much more. Psalm 145:1, “I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.” “The God who gave His only Son, Jesus,” John 3:16.

Second, all who know Jesus Christ as their Savior should thank Him always. 2 Cor. 9:25, “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift, of Jesus our Savior.” Also, Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Third, for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Fourth, for the Bible, God’s holy inspired word of God,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Heb. 4:12, Psalm 119.

Fifth, for our family and also for the family of God, all true believers in Christ. Genesis and Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 and other places talk about our earthly family which God established. Thank God for them. You love them, even though at times you may be ready to pull your hair out over them or trade them in, but family is family and there is that bond. There is also the family of God, the body of Christ, the Church, the saints and how sweet that fellowship is. 1 Cor. 12, and Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” You go through the good times and tough times with God’s family, your church family who know Christ. Your dear family and friends in Christ are the precious treasures of life.

We’ve run out of space and there are so many more things that we should be thankful for, as the old hymn says, “count your many blessings.” We should also be thankful for God’s daily provisions for us; our health, jobs, freedoms that we still have in our nation and many other blessings that God has given us. The list could go on.

So let’s not be like the children of Israel in Exodus 15:22-24, who were often complaining and griping. Let us be thankful all year round.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and may you have many blessings.

•••

Pastor Ron Shupe is retired but has been blessed by the Lord to pastor three different churches in Pennsylvania in his 47 years of ministry (Lancaster County, Sunbury and First Baptist Church of Juniata County, Mifflintown). He and his wife, Rita, live in Mifflintown.