Thanksgiving

Attitude of Gratitude... The Favor of God - Psalm 30:4 Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
praise his holy name. 5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

For me, Mondays are notoriously bad days. Do you have a bad day? Bad days do come. How do you know you're having a bad day?

You know it's a bad day when you call your answering service and they tell you it's none of your business.

You know it's a bad day when you're in a traffic jam, your horn gets stuck and won't stop honking and you're behind a group of Hell's Angels.

You know it's a bad day when you sink your teeth into a big juicy steak and your teeth stay there!

Those are bad days, my friend! But you know what? Even in these "bad days" God's Word tells us to give thanks! This is what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

We need to be able to give thanks, because for the believer, thanksgiving is the first response.

Today, check out the story of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). In the story, we read of only one leper coming back to give thanks to Jesus. I'm certain that all of them were thankful, all of them were grateful, but only one returned, fell on his face and said, "Thank you Lord, for saving me and delivering me."

It is by the grace of God and the goodness of God that we are able to say "thanks."

Attitude of gratitude - Meaningful work - Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Today, let's consider what gratitude is all about. Gratitude is from the same root word in Greek as grace. In our English language, think & thank have the same root word.

So when we think, when we stop, when we reflect on the grace of God in our lives, we say "thank you."

Pause to consider this today. How many times have blessings passed us by because we did not think? Grace and gratitude are twin sisters! Don't get so busy, so hurried that you don't pause to praise. Our lives, as God's children should be communicating consistently our thanks to God as we think about all that He has done. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Attitude of gratitude - The Care of God - Psalm 79:13 Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

The story has been told of an old lady who bowed her head and said, "Thank you, Lord, for these vittles." Someone overheard and asked, "Lady, what are vittles?' She answered, "These are the blessings God gives me, my food to eat." That person responded, "Don't you know you are going to have that food to eat whether you thank God for it or not?" Her answer was very instructive: "Well, perhaps so, but everything tastes better when I'm thankful."

In life everything goes better, everything tastes better when we are thankful.

Consider this today. A thankful heart enjoys double blessings! How you say? The first blessing comes when it is received. The second blessing comes when it is remembered! When you have blessings and you are thankful for those blessings, you can remember them and enjoy them over and over again. It's like a wonderful buffet (without the carbs, calories and cholesterol!) spread before you to enjoy!

This is the true attitude of gratitude! Tomorrow we'll look at Gratitude busters!

It's only a week to Thanksgiving! I hope you will make some time to have your family share during this celebration what they are thankful for. It's good to hear and also remind them to be thankful.

Attitude of Gratitude - God's Provision (comes from the word, "providence") Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Let's think about some attitudes of ungratitude. The first would be the attitude of pride. This attitude says, "I deserve what I have, for I earn what I have." This attitude will destroy thanksgiving in your life.

The second attitude is a critical spirit (some think this is a spiritual gift!) A critical spirit always finds fault. A critical spirit is never satisfied, never content. Constantly complaining will rob us of our joy (and not make us too much fun to be around, either). Someone once wrote that rather than being humbly grateful, a critical spirit makes us grumbly hateful!

Think with me about the wandering Israelites. Every morning they encountered a miracle (manna). When they first received the miracle, they were excited and exuberant. Now, it was getting old. Twenty years is a long time to be eating the same thing!

Here's the thought... They had a miracle each morning, but they got used to the miracle and they were no longer satisfied. Check this out and see if you can find some unsatisfied moments with God's "miracles" in your life and readjust that attitude of gratitude!

We've reached another Friday. Hope to see you at the Work Day on Saturday. It would be so encouraging to have a good turnout!

Attitude of Gratitude - The Steadfast Love of God - Ps 92:1 It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High, 2 to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,

Today, let's consider the "altitude of gratitude" (What?). There is an old saying that states, "It's not your aptitude, but your attitude that determines your altitude." Gratitude will ABSOLUTELY change our lives. It will even alter our perspective on life!

Chuck Swindol shares this anecdote as illustration of this thought. A college coed wrote this letter to her parents.

I'm sorry I've been so long in writing. Unfortunately all my stationery was destroyed the night our dorm was set on fire by demonstrators. I'm out of the hospital now and the doctors say my eyesight should return sooner or later. The wonderful boy, Bill, who rescued me from the fire kindly offered to share his apartment with me until my dorm room is rebuilt. He comes from a grand family, so you won't be surprised when I tell you we're going to be married in a short while. In fact, since you've always wanted a grandchild, you'll be glad to know you'll be grandparents next month!

P.S. Please disregard the above practice in English composition. There was no fire. I haven't been to the hospital. I'm not pregnant, and I don't even have a boyfriend., But I did get a "D" in French and an "F" in chemistry. I just wanted to be sure you received the news in perspective.

I know it is not always easy to praise God. It's not always easy when you are stuck in traffic, late for work to praise God and to thank Him. It's not easy when the Dr's report isn't what you prayed for or hoped for. It's not easy to praise God when your spouse walks out on your life, leaving you high & dry.

Think on this. There are many times in life when it is almost humanly impossible to praise God! It is at this juncture that we need to remember... God will NEVER ask you to do anything He will not ENABLE you to do! If it is the will of God, you give thanks (1 Thess 5:18)

Thanksgiving will not always change your circumstances, but thanksgiving will change what your circumstances will do to you.

Attitude of Gratitude..- The Faithfulness of God - Psalm 89:1 "I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations."

Just for review, we've looked at the attitude of gratitude, the altitude of gratitude and today, the latitude (I bet you thought it was going to start with an "A") of gratitude. By latitude, we're talking about the width of it.

The Philippian jailer in Acts 16 we see him come to Christ. How did he come to know Christ? Some say, "it was the earthquake, because it scared him to death." The earthquake caused him to want to commit suicide, if you look at the story. The real reason the jailer (and his family) came to know Christ was because of two men sitting in prison!

At midnight they were praising God! After being freed from their shackles by the earthquake, they were able by the testimony of their thanksgiving to introduce that jailer to Christ. "Why," you ask?

Thanksgiving is a testimony that extends the love of God to others! When we realize how blessed we are, we will want to be a blessing to someone else. We want to share our blessings! The latitude of gratitude is the joy of expressing our thanks, so that we may be able to extend the grace of God and the goodness of God to others.

The sun returns! Someday the Son will return as well. I hope that you are ready!

Attitude of gratitude... Spiritual growth - 2 Thess 1:3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.

We begin today considering how we can practically share the latitude of gratitude. One way is by singing! Psalm 28:7 states, The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Here we see that we praise God with the testimony of song. And the great part about this is that we don't have to be a virtuoso! Look into the Psalms. Many of them are songs of praise and thanksgiving. We are encouraged to "not forget all of his benefits."

I am away now, but I will have Karen send these along to you. I will write again on Monday, Nov 27th and together we will begin to prepare for celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Attitude of gratitude... My circumstances - 1 Thess 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

We're considering how to spread the latitude of gratitude to others. Yesterday it was singing. Today, consider sharing. What do we mean by sharing? Simply giving to others. We are to give, not grudgingly, but with thanksgiving. It is a privilege to give to our church. It is a blessing to see how God uses our gifts to accomplish His work. It is a blessing to be obedient to the Scriptures with our giving. We need to see that giving is not something we have to do, but something we are blessed to do in order to help participate in the ministry of the church.

Here's the key... To forget about ourselves and live for others rather than ourselves is the breadth and width of gratitude! One more thought for tomorrow!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Are you watching the Macy's parade? It's always great to see the floats, balloons and performers who are there!

Attitude of gratitude...What God has done - 1 Chronicles 16:8 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Our final consideration in sharing the latitude of gratitude... spreading. The greatest cause of thanksgiving in our life is the day that we trusted in Christ to be our Savior.

I will be forever grateful for that gift. For the eternal life I received from Him.

The next greatest experience is being used by God to share that gift with someone else by telling them about Jesus.

Here's something to think about.... If you are having problems with the latitude of gratitude in your life, ask yourself, "How long has it been since I shared my faith with someone else?" This is a wonderful time to give thanks by sharing a testimony of faith in the Lord Jesus.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving day, may your attitude, altitude and latitude reflect a grateful heart!

Last attitude of gratitude...The promises of God - 2 Cor 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

As we wrap up Thanksgiving, I have one more thought...Rudyard Kipling was a great British poet. He made a great deal of money at his trade.

A newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make form your writings amounts to over $100 a word." Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I certainly wasn't aware of that." The reporter cynically reached into his pocket and pulled out a $100 bill and gave it to Kipling and said, "Now you give me one of your $100 words."

Kipling looked at that piece of currency for a moment, folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks."

Thanks certainly is a $100 word! It is one word that is too seldom heard, too rarely spoken and too often forgotten! So, as we close this Thanksgiving season on "black Friday," Remember to apply this verse more often... 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning YOU (my capitals)."