With Thanksgiving preparations, and the holidays approaching, it’s easy to get distracted and forget what Thanksgiving is all about. But as Christians, we should be even more intentional to live out the real meaning of Thanksgiving, since being thankful is an important part of having a healthy relationship with God.
Everyone’s situation is different, and believe me, I know what a struggle it can to be grateful! However, God deserves our complete thanksgiving, no matter the circumstances. Here’s five reasons to intentionally embrace thankfulness this Thanksgiving.
1. God Has Blessed You Abundantly
Regardless of your physical situation, God has given you this life and eternal life through his son, Jesus. He loves you and paid the highest price to demonstrate that love. The least we can do is offer a grateful heart to him. He desires for us to give him all of our cares and be filled with a gratefulness that can only come from his true love.
Psalm 136:26 says “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever”
We can never praise him enough for the gift of his enduring love!
2. Thankfulness is Healthy
To be in a healthy state spiritually, thankfulness is vital. Often, the things God requires of us are for our own good. We’re told to give thanks, but it actually benefits us to give our hearts to God in thanksgiving. When we focus on God’s goodness in our lives, we can’t focus on our problems.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” His will is perfect and it is his will for us to give thanks, no matter what.
3. You Avoid the Devil’s Trap
Satan wants to keep us out of the game. He wants to convince us to wallow in self-pity. He doesn’t want us to be connected to God, and being thankful is a very powerful way to connect with God.
It’s the devil’s defeat when we give our cares to God and give thanks. When we submit to God, the devil must flee! God inhabits the praises of his people, and the devil can’t stay where God is.
4. Being Thankful Can Draw Others to God
By being thankful, we shine the light of God’s truth into other people’s lives. Thankfulness causes people to wonder what brings us such joy in our broken world. This shows God’s goodness to others.
We’re saying to others “My God is so good! I’m thankful even though this life is difficult.” That is a very powerful message. When we’re joyful and grateful, people are drawn to us and, consequentially, to God.
5. Thankfulness Strengthens Relationships
Have you ever tried spending a day focusing on everything good in the people around you, and being thankful for those things? It’s definitely a challenge, especially when your little brother won’t let you concentrate on your school for two seconds straight! But if we press forward, it gets easier. It will strengthen our relationships and draw us closer to others.
This also helps our relationship with God. If we choose to look at his love and power in our lives instead of looking at our problems, we’ll experience his love in a whole new way!
Let me challenge you to spend the next several days focused on thankfulness. Let’s surrender our hearts to God and allow his love to flow through us.
