The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)

In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18, CJB

Every day is a day of thanksgiving./God’s been so good to me,/every day He’s blessing me./Every day is a day of thanksgiving;/take the time to glorify the Lord today. ~ the chorus from the Gospel song “Every Day Is a Day of Thanksgiving” as sung by GMWA Mass Choir

The apostle Paul’s God-inspired words and the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) Mass Choir’s lyrics both remind us that God is a good God and that, in some way every day, He keeps blessing us. For these reasons, both the above Scripture and lyrics recommend to us that we ought to live like every day is a day of thanksgiving. In other words, Thanksgiving Day is not just an annual national holiday, but it is a day in which we who believe in Christ Jesus ought to be praising and thanking our Father God for all He has done for us and for all that He has given to us, instead of just waiting for the fourth Thursday of every November to offer up to Father God our praise and thanksgiving.

While Thanksgiving Day is indeed a time to reflect and a time to give praise and thanks for everything God has done for us and for everything God has given to us, the truth is that on every day of every year we ought to celebrate our God’s gifts of Mercy, Grace, Regeneration, Salvation, Sanctification, Faithfulness, Love, Kindness, Forgiveness, Life, indeed, every one of His countless blessings. Put differently, we not only ought to be thankful but also we ought to demonstrate our thanksgiving (our expression of gratitude to Father God) every day of every year, and not just on the established annual Thanksgiving Day!

Why should offering God our thanksgiving be a 365-day lifestyle? Well, if we are God’s children, then the Divine Truth is that we have received salvation and so much more from God. For these reasons, every day should be a day of thanksgiving for us. In fact, the psalmist tells those of us who are God’s children that we ought to: “Offer thanksgiving as [our] sacrifice to God, pay [our] vows to the Most High” ~ Psalm 50:14, CJB (the inserted bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis).

There can be no denying that, based on both Old and New Testament Scriptures, God has made it very clear to His children what He wants from them. God not only wants His children to have a cheerful spirit (heart) but also He wants them to have a thankful spirit (heart). God daily wants His children’s thanksgiving or thankfulness (gratitude).

It is God’s Perfect Will that every child of His who has received anything from Him should give God thanks for what He has done for him or her, as well as for what He has given to him or her. In fact, God knows that there is no true/sincere thanksgiving, if a person has not received anything for which he or she can be thankful. In other words, God knows that human being’s natural and spiritual tendency to give thanksgiving only comes as a result of that person having received “something” from someone else.

Thus, since God’s saved children constantly receive “something” from Him, “something” over and above their salvation, that’s why their salvation and every other “something” He gives to them are the reasons why daily thanksgiving is really a 365-day lifestyle, and why authentic thankfulness is the first thing God wants to receive from His children’s worship. Second to their thanksgiving is their surrendered obedient will. Just like people cannot be thankful for “something” they have not received, people also cannot be willingly obedient to God’s Perfect Will for them to offer Him thanksgiving, if people feel like they have been forced to give God their thankfulness, when that is not what they want to do. The end result of people’s forced will is fake thanksgiving, and God doesn’t want people’s pretend (phony) thanks.

The bottom line is this:   Unless His children willingly are obedient to the Perfect Will of God, especially where their thanksgiving is concerned, they never will have a genuine attitude of gratitude for everything, including all of their pleasant and unpleasant situations and circumstances. Furthermore, unless His children become aware of the fact that their God constantly is giving them “something” that is priceless, they will continue to whine because they will think that God has not given them anything for which they should be thankful.

So then, if God’s children never are able to discern spiritually that God continues to give them valuable things, then they also will not be able to discern spiritually God’s revealed purpose, meaning, and reason for every situation and every circumstance they encounter.  As a result, His children also never will be able to discern spiritually what God can and will do with every situation and every circumstance.  In the end, being able to discern spiritually what God can and will do with every one of His children’s situations and every one of their circumstances is the only way that God’s children learn the importance of willingly, genuinely, and daily expressing their thankfulness in everything!  A word to the wise should be sufficient!

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING Day on November 22^nd, and on every day for the rest of your life.