Oftentimes, I get to see an instruction in the Bible or from some other place that says to give thanks to God always, but have I been thankful enough? No, I haven’t…and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I can ever be thankful enough. How can I ever be thankful enough, when I can never know the breadth, length, height and depth of all Jesus already did for me?
I should be thankful always, but I am not thankful enough and I can never be thankful enough. So, what can I do? Answer: Live and lead a life that breaths out thanksgiving. That means thanksgiving will have to be more than something I do at the beginning and ending of my prayers. It has to be more than a holiday or an event at the end of a year. It means it can’t be limited to just when my consciousness is drawn to the awesomeness of God in my life. It means I’ll have to make thanksgiving a culture. I’ll have to, consciously and constantly, speak it, write about it, and make it run like a thread through every nook and cranny of my life. It will have to become a lifestyle.
Thanksgiving should be a style we carry, confidently and boldly, everywhere we go
Do you have a celebrity you admire because of how outstanding the person’s style is? Well, you might not have. Maybe you’re not good at being an admirer from afar. But how about someone you’re not really sure you admire but you still get to identify easily, because of how outstanding the person’s style is? Now I want to believe you have a picture of a particular person in mind. And if you still don’t, you probably need to stop reading…pause…and think out someone.
Now, you should definitely have someone in mind. Why do you think that person’s style stands out? Why do you think it is very easy to identify the person with that style? Why do you think it’s also easy to know when someone else is trying to copy that person’s style? For me, I’ll say it lies in the confidence and boldness the owner of the style wears the style with.
If people don’t feel confident and bold about a style they’re wearing, they might be gorgeously dressed, but their lack of confidence and boldness will cover the gorgeousness. It happens to the best of us. If we don’t believe in what we have and what we carry, what we have and carry will have all of its goodness, but we’ll just hide it from the eyes of the world. It is the same with thanksgiving.
We have to be bold and confident with our thanksgiving. We have to carry it so well; so much so, everything within our world sees it, perceives it, feels it, and hears it. We don’t get to use thanksgiving as an accessory to spice up our lifestyle; we should make it our lifestyle. We don’t get to give thanks to help us believe, we give thanks because we believe. We shouldn’t give thanks to remember how good God is, we should give thanks because we always know how so good He is. We don’t get to be thankful only when we see the manifestation of what we believed God for, we should be thankful even when it feels God has shut the door at us. Our thanksgiving shouldn’t be within the confines of some seasons, it should be very present and extremely loud in all the seasons of our lives. We should give thanks because we are confident in our God, who we are in Him and what we have in Him.
Our God is GOOD and His MERCY endures FOREVER
God is good…forever. His mercy endures…forever. He can never fail us. He can never change. The times and seasons in our lives will come and go. The trials and temptations will fade away. The tears won’t last forever. Nothing in our lives will ever be constant. Our only constant is our God. Yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever are before Him and He has a good plan for us…a plan that started before our yesterday began and runs perfectly into our forever…a plan full of all the characteristics of His indescribable love. This is our confidence, and when we give thanks, we give thanks boldly with this confidence.
Thanksgiving isn’t a suggestion; it is an instruction from God
When we allow the things around us bully our ability to give thanks to God, we shrink into disobedience. Do not let your emotions deceive you; thanksgiving is beyond how you feel. If you allow your emotions decide when you give thanks, you’ll not just live a life that is void thanksgiving; you’ll also be living in disobedience.
We all do this: sometimes, we see or hear a truth we are oh so familiar with, silently or audibly we admit it is a “truth”, yet we never really walk in that truth. When it is a truth directly from God, the Bible says clearly, “…obey the message; be doers of the Word, and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourself [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. James 1:22 (AMPC)
1Thessalonians 5:16 says “…rejoice and be glad-hearted continually—always.” Verse 17 says “Thank [God] in everything—no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks; for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus…” (AMPC)
It is not enough to know and believe you are supposed to be thankful. Are you really thankful? If we were to create a device that could run a “how much are you thankful test” on a scale from 1-10 where do you think you’ll fall?
As fellow heirs with Christ: we don’t tell lies because we are under pressure, we do not steal because we are in need, we don’t yield to immorality because we find ourselves in a particular position etc. You have to treat ingratitude as a sin also. You have to tell your flesh and its emotions, that you cannot lose your thanksgiving because of how you feel. You have to make your flesh understand that thanksgiving is not just about how you feel…it is you obeying an instruction from God. You have to, deliberately, begin to practice how to be conscious about giving thanks. Refuse to be okay with not giving thanks, always.
Create your thanksgiving style, and then make sure to rock out with it
How about sitting down to craft a style of thanksgiving that is true and unique to your personality? How about making a decision that this season will mark the beginning of living a thankful lifestyle, like never before?
King David wrote songs, you might not be able to meet or beat that, but what can you do? How about writing words you can’t give rhythm and beats to? Or you can decide to follow the advice from a beautiful couple I follow on IG. The couple called it a “thankful jar.” The idea is: basically, at the end of each day you write all you’re thankful for and just drop in a jar. Then, you get to read it at the end of each month, or a couple of months or you can just wait to read it at the end of a year. How about taking out an entire week in each month to just post all you’re thankful for on your social media platforms? Then, there’s the “no complain, only gratitude” challenge, when you get to immediately replace the urge to complain with thanksgiving.
Prayerfully, create a thanksgiving style and make it a culture that will stand the test of time in your life. Let everything within and around you always see you rock out with thanksgiving…in your style. Let everyone and thing in your world hear you. Let it be obvious. Let thanksgiving be interwoven with your life, every aspect of your life…and you’ll get to see how powerful it can transform you and everything within and around you.
My prayer for you and me:
May we be bold and confident with our thanksgiving…may thanksgiving become a lifestyle for us…may we never take a break from thanksgiving, no matter what. In Jesus’ name…Amen.
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