Issue No. 5: Vol. 4: The “Encourager:” November, 2008
“THANKSGIVING, A REASON TO EXPRESS THANKS”

Question? If you lost your health and strength, wealth and resources, children and parents, job and spouse could you give thanks; since all that was dear and near to your ‘heart’ has been taken away?
Response: “In Everything, Give thanks!”  “For Where your Treasure is There will your ‘Heart’ be also” Matthew 6:21 (KJV).

The New International WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY defines thanksgiving: “giving of thanks; a means of expressing thanks and thank-full: (thank-ful): “feeling or expressing gratitude.” The opposite definition would be: thankless: “unlikely to elicit approval; unappreciated.” 
Note: the word thanksgiving is never defined as a Holy Day nor a holiday, thanksgiving is associated with the expression of an attitude because of an act towards you that has left you better than you could imagine.

The WORD defines “Thanksgiving” in the following manner: “Gratitude directed towards God(except Luke 17:9; Acts 24:3; Romans 16:4), generally in response to God’s concrete acts in history.  Thanksgiving was central to Old Testament worship.  Pilgrimage to the Temple and Temple worship were characterized by thanksgiving (Psalms 42:4; 95:2; 100:4 and, 122:4).  Thankfulness was expressed for personal (Psalm 35:18) and national deliverance (Psalm 44: 7-8); for God’s faithfulness to the covenant (Psalm 100:5); and for forgiveness (Psalm 30: 4-5; Isaiah 12:1).  All creation joins in offering thanks to God (Psalm 145:10).  Thanksgiving is a ‘natural’ element of Christian worship and is to characterize all of Christian life.  Whenever Sacrifice and Offerings were to be offered the acts were not to be made grudgingly but with Thanksgiving.  The “Psalmist valued a song of thanksgiving more than sacrifice,” Psalm 69: 30-31(NIV).

Early Christians expressed thanks for Christ’s healing ministry; for Christ’s deliverance of the believer from sin; for God’s indescribable “gift of grace in Christ,” and for the faith of fellow Christians.  Why, then, do present-day faith communities and Christians have such a problem with expressing the attitude and gratitude of thankfulness and thanksgiving? Why is there such a growth of ingratitude and thanklessness among the people? Could it be that we actually believe that we deserve blessings? Do we believe that we are the source of all that we have? Is it that we lack appreciation for food, shelter, finances, health, security and happiness? Is praise a foreign word in the believers- vocabulary of daily blessings? What is it that truly matters to you; children, house, money, a good nights sleep, safety, national security, the next President of these United States of America, food, peace, peace of mind, education, family, church, GOD? Whatever matters to you most is where your treasure is and where your treasurer is also where your heart is.    

Have you ever had a “Job-like” day or experience? What about “9-11,”  “Tsunami,” did we, still have reason to offer Praise, even, the more?  Yes, we did and do have reason to praise and to be thankful that more lives more not lost and greater destruction. In the initial scenario, within this issue, I asked a question. The question presented situational ethical problems, and any ‘one’ problem, alone, may or could cause you to lose faith, hope and your praise; but be encouraged! Few have been confronted with such losses in life and most certainly, not in a day. This alone is enough to be thankful, right? But for those who have faced a “Job-like” experience, up close and personal, I pray that you have found your reason for thanksgiving ‘anyway’! The book of Job, so it is written, reflects catastrophic loss within a 24-hour period of time and yet, Job praised the LORD! “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away, ‘Blessed be the Name of the LORD.’” What’s our excuse?
                                                                                                                                      

It is my prayer that you find refuge in the “Thanksgiving Psalms.”  These Psalms show us our need to acknowledge God’s work in our times of trouble and to witness to others of what God has done for us. The unearned “Gift of Grace,” is a love gift from a merciful GOD. The spirit of thanks giving is contagious, now go out and become an intentional blessing for someone you don’t know. Thankfulness, Honesty yields its own reward! My personal witness is that a grateful citizen returned to say “thank you” after a great loss!

The “Encourager”