Growing in Thankfulness

Well it is my Thanksgiving week... and the verses for the day are in Psalm 136 “Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:” then several verses describing how God shows this in our world and lives then ends with verse 26 that says “Oh give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever.”

So here it is Thanksgiving on my diary. So I am reminded to be thankful. But what is thankfulness really about? Well long answers are just that so will leave it as a short one for now.

I think most of us understand the basic idea of this—it is gratitude—it is one of those almost natural responses to being blessed. When someone gives us something we wanted we tend to be thankful. Sometimes sadly in our selfishness we have to be reminded. Sometimes it is in the rush of life we just forget, sometimes it is a matter of our hearts and minds are just in different places and thankfulness is not mentioned even when we are. 

This week is my reminder to not only be grateful and filled with gratitude and thanksgiving but to express it as well. I give an almost annual speech on Thanksgiving night about how I need this reminder... Thing is I need this reminder and maybe should do thanksgiving 5 or six times a year—just the diet can’t quite endure it...

The examples in the OT are quite clear—when people were thankful they worshiped God, they brought sacrifices... some were mandatory—again because though in many ways Thankfulness is a natural the expression of the blessings of life it is not always so. And sometimes it is our sense of entitlement that makes us think it is owed to us so therefore we don’t need to express our grateful hearts to anyone... but God ‘demands’ it... but when we glorify God and worship God the thankfulness does come naturally... the expression of that comes naturally.

So I will enjoy a few friends over for the whole American Thanksgiving Dinner thing, too much food and fun, my annual speech but still a reminder in the bounty that it is every day the same—God is good and His mercy and provision in my life are forever. Thank you God!

Trying to grow in thankfulness,

Rev. Jon Bergen