CLERGY CORNER: Thanksgiving

Posted on 21 November 2012 by LeslieM

Are you a complainer or a thankful person? You cannot be both, so you must be one or the other. Every group seems to have one complainer who everyone tries to avoid. If you do not have a complainer in your group, then it is probably you! Which do you think God wants you to be? Take a few minutes and write down the things you are most thankful for on a sheet of paper or index card. The reason why I want you to write them down is so you can go back and look at it, to remember what God has done in your life. So when things do not go right, instead of feeling down in the dumps, we could look back at what God has done for us. We tend to forget all that He has done for us.

1THESSALONIANS 5:18

18: Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. NLT

Right in the middle of whatever challenges you are facing, you need to be a person who gives thanks. I know that it doesn’t seem to make sense sometimes when we are going through very difficult circumstances, to say, “Thank you, Lord, for these difficult circumstances in my life,” when we really wish God would just fix it and make it go away. Instead of complaining about our situation, we need to look back over the year on how God has worked on our behalf and start to thank Him, knowing that He is bigger than all our circumstances and will help us through them all.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6

6: Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. NLT

Thankfulness is an attitude. It is a condition of the heart. What kind of condition is your heart in, not just this Thanksgiving, but year-round? If we are going to have an attitude of being thankful, then it must be something we do all year long and not just one or two days out of the year.

We need to have an attitude of gratitude.

PSALMS 100:4

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. NLT

This is a Psalm of Thanksgiving and refers to a public acknowledgement of God. We all have things that go wrong in our lives every day. If we learn to focus on the things we are thankful for and not all the negative things in our lives, then we can begin to learn to be truly happy and content. This is something that should actually show in our outward actions and attitudes. God has blessed us and given us so many things to be thankful for that, we should be full of joy and peace every day.

Remember the things that God has saved you from, and do not live in the past. Our everyday lives should show that we are thankful and grateful for all God has done for us. As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, remember the original spirit of the oldest of all American holidays – gratefulness to God. In the middle of all the hustle and bustle, take time to give thanks and praise to God for all the wonderful things in your life.

Pastor Tony Guadagnino is pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church.

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