“Gratitude is from the same root word as grace, signifying the free and boundless mercy of God. Thanksgiving is from the same root word as think, so to think is to thank.” (Willis P. King)
Thanksgiving is more than a holiday on the calendar; it is an attitude of heart that praises our Creator and Savior every day we live.
Surely our greatest blessing is the mercy of God—preserving our lives, forgiving our sins, restoring our hope. If we would only think more, we would thank more.
God’s goodness and mercy pursue us all the days of our life (Psalm 23:6). Even when we’re having “one of those days”—when nothing seems to go right, and everything nailed down is coming loose—God’s unfailing love enables us to declare, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
We may not always live on Easy Street; but whatever our address, God is with us so we can find a reason to be thankful. No situation, however desperate, is God-forsaken. So bellyaching is inexcusable. Being humbly grateful is better than being grumbly hateful.
If we concern ourselves with God’s kingdom, He promises to concern Himself with our needs. There’s no need to fret about tomorrow’s grocery shopping—we can just push our cart down the aisle of our current circumstances and our Father will see to it that it is filled with whatever we need.
Faith’s dusk dinners and hope’s dawn breakfasts are hors d’oeuvres to whet our appetite for the heavenly banquet of love. Realizing who set our table, we bow our head and say grace.
We should do more than give thanks—we should live thanks.
“In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 16:12 NLT).
Johnny R. Almond
Christian preacher and writer
Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity
[This devotion based on Day 47 of Gentle Whispers from Eternity]
Read blog at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized
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