“16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
This coming Thursday, we’ll gather around tables filled with food and surrounded by family. We will think about the four “F’s” – food, family, fellowship, and football. Our national Thanksgiving holiday puts us in a frame of mind of being thankful for all we have, a day to remember all that Jehovah has done for us. Thanksgiving though is not just a day on the calendar; it’s an attitude of the heart and for Christians it’s an attitude which we should hold onto and celebrate every day.
Notice in the scripture just read - when the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he told them to
“…give thanks “in” all circumstances;”
I Thessalonians 5:18a
Paul did not say “for” all circumstances, he said “in” all circumstances. Our thankfulness is not dependent on what is happening around us it is not merely a reaction to good fortune. Gratitude, which is another word for thankfulness, and I’ll be using the two words interchangeably throughout this lesson, is not rooted in our circumstances. In other words when we are promoted in our jobs, ace a test in school, survive a catastrophic event such as a car wreck or a hurricane – our gratitude, our thankfulness to God should be given to Jehovah but should not be reserved for such occasions.
Our gratitude is a spiritual discipline, a choice we make because of who God is. Our gratitude should be given to the One God who keeps us safe, who provides for us everything we need, the God who holds us steady throughs the trials and tribulations of this world as we face them but also our gratitude should be given to Jehovah for the simple things in our lives, the things we easily overlook. Things such as the rain and snow that falls because Jehovah designed those events to replenish the earth, or the magnificent way in which He created the earth to be so harmonious such as how each season has a purpose and each season relies on the previous season or the relationship between bees and flowers. We know our crops rely on bees to pollinate the crops flowers in order for the plants to produce their fruit and the bees in turn rely on the nectar and pollen which the bees require in order to build their combs and feed not only themselves but also their queens and brood.
So, this morning as we think on the things we are grateful for or thankful for, I’d like for us to look at four aspects of thankfulness or gratitude and remember what James tells us:
“7 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.”
James 1:7
Firstly gratitude, or thankfulness, (and I’ll use those terms interchangeably throughout the lesson), but gratitude begins with remembering. Thankfulness reminds us of Jehovah’s presence in our lives.
In Deuteronomy 8, the people of Israel are warned not to forget the Lord once they settle into the land of promise. You see, Jehovah knows us and knows how comfort has a way of dulling our memory. But with thankfulness we sharpen our memory and we remember where our good fortunes come from. Jehovah even reminds us of this in verse 18 of Deurteronomy 8:
“18a But remember the Lord you God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth…”
Deuteronomy 8:18a
When life gets busy, as it always does, with work, bills, sickness, uncertainty and more – we can easily forget that God is still with us. Being thankful brings us back to center. It helps to calm us when we are frustrated and frazzled with the problems life throws at us. More importantly, it opens our eyes and hearts to the presence of Jehovah in our every moment of the day.
When we are appreciative of God’s presence in our lives we have a fuller life because every breath we breath means more, our interactions with family and friends mean more, our relationships mean more, our circumstances mean more. The beauty of His creation means more because we actively see it.
Let me expound on that just a bit. Let’s say you are driving to the grocery store. Your mind is probably on what you are going to buy, what you need to buy, how much you have to spend, etc. But do you notice the beauty of the trees. Depending on the season they are colorful or they are green. I know that as I drive the hour here and hour home, the beauty of the seasons, of Jehovah’s creation gives me peace and calms me.
A week ago, I was in my hometown of Chattanooga for my cousin’s wedding. Throughout my journey there and back I found such peace and joy as I drove along, especially when I got off the interstate and took the backroads from Pigeon Forge up into the mountains where I caught the interstate again.
As I drove along those backroads, I became keenly aware of my surroundings and not only the nature around me but the beauty of how God made man capable of overcoming and using nature. I saw how men had created homes nearby to streams in order to take advantage of the power in the streams to create electricity. How they had used the materials at hand to create their shelter, their homes built of river rock and timbers they cut themselves. It made me appreciative and thankful of the power of Jehovah to give mankind the ability to create for themselves these things.
But I also saw old homes and shacks no longer inhabited, run down and falling apart. And I saw in those structures being overgrown with vines a lesson of how nothing in this life lasts forever and that too is a part of life, a part of the beauty of His creation, and I give thanks for that plan.
To give our thanks to Jehovah is to remember:
• Where we’ve come from
• The prayers Jehovah God has answered
• The people who formed us
• The mercies that carried us through
Thankfulness is not about pretending life has been easy. It is about acknowledging that even in difficulty, God has been faithful.
Secondly, gratefulness reorders our perspective and in turn strengthens our faith.
We live in a world built to stir up dissatisfaction. Every advertisement whispers, “You need more.” Yet God’s Word speaks of a different world:
“1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Psalm 23:1
That verse befuddled me as a boy. I couldn’t figure out why the writer didn’t want the Lord to be his shepherd. I think I was in high school when I came to realize there was a comma there and the meaning was because the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in need or want of anything else, that He will give me all I need. Just as the Israelites wandering in the desert – He provided manna for them (Deuteronomy 8:3). In fact, Jehovah even saw to their clothing –
“4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.”
Deuteronomy 8:4
So in the knowledge that He is going to take care of my every need, I am thankful to Him.
Gratitude slows us down long enough to notice the small joys of life—our meals each day, the sunrise, or the laughter of someone we love. When we practice gratitude, we train our hearts to see abundance instead of scarcity, gifts instead of losses.
It's easy to be thankful when everything is going well. But the true test of gratitude comes when life doesn’t make sense, or when tragedy comes.
Think of Job. He was stripped of everything, yet he declared,
“21b The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21b
Job has lost his wealth, his servants and even his children. Yet Job realizes that everything he has is a gift from Jehovah to him. Job realizes all things are transitory and nothing we have is truly ours. Previously in verse 21 Job says –
“21a Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.”
Job 1:21a
and as such Job acknowledges and accepts God’s sovereignty over both blessings and hardships.
But that did not bring cursing and anger at God, rather Job praised Jehovah and in so doing he acknowledges that God is the ultimate source of everything.
When we choose to give thanks… even in the storms of life, we are not ignoring reality, we’re proclaiming that God is greater than our circumstances.
In my own life when I pray and give thanks to Jehovah in private, I can see how the act of giving thanks to God slows me down and opens my eyes to His gifts. I will give thanks for everything under the sun it seems, even mundane things, just trying to think of all the ways He has blessed me and realizing I cannot possibly know them all. Yet I give thanks still for the unknown things.
“20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:20
Thanksgiving, then, is not just a holiday—it is resistance. Resistance to ingratitude, or no thankfulness at all. Gratitude is choosing to see Jehovah’s goodness and love for us even as the world tells us to grasp for more.
Thirdly, Thankfulness leads to generosity.
Being thankful is never meant to stop with us. Real thankfulness spills over and blesses others as well. Thankfulness is contagious.
In Matthew 14 we find Jesus withdrawing by boat from a crowd on shore. He had just been given the news of the beheading of His cousin John the baptizer. Yet the crowds still followed Him along the shore and when he again came ashore, He had compassion on the people and continued healing the sick. Jesus was on the hillside and as he was healing the sick in Matthew 14, the day was growing late and the crowd growing hungry, so the disciples wanted to send the people away to eat since it was so late. And we all know the story, how He told the people to sit on the grass and gave a blessing for five loaves of bread and the two fish they had. And the latter part of verse 19 it says:
“19b and looking up to Heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves.”
Matthew 14:19b
Then we read in the next verse:
“20 They all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
Matthew 14: 20-21
Can you imagine that!? It says 5000 MEN, but it also says women and children in addition to the 5000, so you can imagine it was very likely closer to 9 to 10,000 people there that were fed - all from five simple loaves of bread and two fish! What a miracle that was! And it came about, and out of, Jesus giving thanks. From thankfulness comes abundance.
Gratitude opens our hearts and it makes us aware of what we have received so that we in turn can share it freely with others.
When we recognize everything is a gift, giving becomes natural, not forced. We offer our time, our compassion, our resources, not out of guilt but out of joy. A grateful heart becomes a generous heart.
Let me tell you a quick story to illustrate that last statement.
There was a young woman named Jenny who kept a small basket of lemons on her porch. Now these lemons were bright, sun-yellow ones from the tree in her backyard which her grandfather planted decades before.
Jenny’s neighbors often admired them and she in turn would cheerfully offer them some of the lemons.
One afternoon, a boy from down the street was passing by and he asked if they were truly free? Naturally Jenny smiled and replied “Of course – they taste better when they are shared!”
The boy lit up and taking several and holding them like they were gold he went merrily on his way home. Later that week the boy returned with a tiny jar of homemade lemonade. “This is for you Jenny,” the boy said, “because you gave me the idea.”
Surprised and genuinely delighted Jenny smiled warmly at the gift made from her lemons. She hadn’t thought twice about the lemons since the boy had taken them home. They were simply there to give and they were plentiful, and most importantly she enjoyed giving them away. But that small gesture of giving had inspired something sweet in return, and she recalled something her grandfather used to say – “Real giving from the heart is like that lemon tree. It doesn’t think about the fruit it grows, it just offers what it naturally has, and the world becomes a little brighter because of it.”
You see, Jenny was grateful for the things she had. But she had a desire to share it, to give it to others. She wasn’t forced to give. She didn’t give out of a guilty conscience or being felt she had to. She gave freely of her generous heart. When we as people, as Christians, recognize that everything is a gift we experience gratitude or thankfulness to Jehovah for the gifts he has given so freely to us and we in turn desire to offer our time, our compassion, our resources to others. Not out of guilt but out of joy.
And Jehovah wants us to do this.
“7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
And you recall how Jenny received a gift as a result of her giving? Well that too is a Bible principle.
“38 Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”
Luke 6:38
So giving and receiving are both products of gratitude and giving thanks. A grateful heart becomes a generous heart.
Our fourth and last point or aspect of being thankful is that gratitude grounds us in God’s presence.
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about gratitude is that it draws us closer to God.
Being thankful is one of the pathways into Jehovah’s presence.
“4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Psalm 100:4
The Psalmist has told us we are invited to “enter his gates with thanksgiving.” When we pause to thank God, we become aware that God is already near.
In Phillipians chapter 4 verse 6 we can realize this:
“6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.”
Phillipians 4:6
As we gather Thursday with family and friends to enjoy a feast and fellowship let us all remember that
• Gratitude begins with remembering God’s faithfulness
• Gratitude reorders our perspective toward joy
• Gratitude leads us to generosity
• Gratitude opens our hearts to God’s presence.
This season, let us not simply “feel” thankfulness for the holidays, but let us all “practice” thankfulness – daily… intentionally… whole-heartedly. Because a thankful heart, a heart filled with gratitude is not something we just stumble into; it is something we must cultivate. Thankfulness isn’t a holiday – it’s a habit. It’s easy to say “thank you” when the table is full; but the real test is to keep that same spirit of gratitude when the table feels empty too.
There is however a caveat to giving thanks and showing gratitude. And that is it is so easy to receive God’s blessings and we can just as easily neglect to say “thank you.” Gratitude isn’t automatic – it’s intentional. When we give thanks, we honor the Giver, not just the gift. So if we do not give thanks, if we do not show gratitude, then we do dishonor to the Giver instead of honor.
Giving thanks is to remember Jehovah and who he is and what He’s done.
Of course our greatest gratitude and thanks is reserved for Jesus, for the love He has for us and the sacrifice He made on the cross for us. A sacrifice so immense I don’t believe any of us can comprehend it to the fullest and that makes our gratitude for His sacrifice even so much more important.
There is so much more we could say about giving thanks, gratitude and Thanksgiving but we’ll conclude with this:
This Thanksgiving, and in fact every single day, let your gratitude be more than a prayer the moment before the meal. Let it be the doorway through which you encounter God for
“24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24
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