Why Be Thankful?
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18 … In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
What are you thankful for today? No, I mean really, REALLY thankful for? If you are anything like me, you become aware, from time to time, that you are actually taking for granted a great many things that you should be thanking God for on a regular basis, with nearly every breath almost. Or at the very least when they come to mind.
Keep Being Thankful
- 1 Chronicles 16:8 … Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.
But one of the enemy’s main priorities is to KEEP you from thinking about those things that you are thankful for. He is literally hell-bent on keeping you focused on fear, doubt, jealousy, envy…anything that can get your eyes off Jesus.
And it has worked SO well for SO many years in SO many situations! That’s really all he has to do… give us one little thought that will absolutely consume us until we are not a worry or a threat to him. And these days, he doesn’t even have to go to the trouble of focusing on each of us, separately. He uses the mass media outlets to be channels of fear as we hone in to those things we simply “have to know”.
More Reason To Be Thankful
- Psalm 18:49 … Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.
This is one of the main reasons I have almost closed my social media accounts on MANY different occasions. If there’s anything at all you can count on, outside of God’s unfailing love and mercy and grace, it is being able to find all the latest bad news on social media, and you can’t even trust that everything you see is the truth!
We share things on a regular basis that go absolutely viral and have little to no truth at all. I have seen people get bombarded as lairs themselves when all they did was to share something without validating the source first.
- Psalm 119:62 … At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
And then there are the political stories in abundance that not only instill worry and fear, but pit people against one another when they disagree on principles and what should and should not be done, and once again, you can only truly believe about half of it. Those things that “are” true are more than likely only true in part. And we forget that we are all human… even those with political careers. It doesn’t make them all correct in their leanings, but there is much more to it than simply a statement that begins with “I believe….”
Being Thankful is Enriching
- 2 Corinthians 9:11 … Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
The fact is, there is so much to be thankful for! We should guard ourselves diligently against falling for these ploys of the enemy. Because if he learns they will work for you, he will keep pressing that same old button over and over. So choose THIS DAY whom you will serve and know that He is in control and there is coming a day when none of this will matter. But He knows who has a thankful heart.
- Ephesians 5:4 … Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
Giving thanks, being joyful means that we accept victory when failure is evident. The enemy is jealous of our privileges as he can’t have what we are getting. So give thanks even when the going is tough, be joyful in the Lord. Get a band together and praise. Satan can’t stand it and will flee.
Amen!
Thankfulness in our daily walk is indeed so key! I’ve found it to be the best weapon against discontentment, which the enemy loves to use to draw us away from the Lord. Praise God that He is so gracious to us and gives us so much to be grateful for – especially our salvation in Christ!
Amen, Dani! How well said! 🙂