Thanksgiving

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4

How thankful are you?

I stumbled on a quote that said, “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?” My heart was immediately troubled! I realized if this happened today, what or who might be gone from my life? This made me honestly think about how deficient I was at thanking God and started a quest in my own life to become more thankful.

I began to see that every day can be Thanksgiving when we recognize and accept how much God really blesses us each day. I read a quote from pastor Chuck Smith’s Memoir of Grace where he wrote that he believes God has at least one blessing for each of us every day–we just need to be aware of it and watch for it.

This got me to start purposely thinking about what will God bless me with today. I began journaling each day the things I was thankful to God for providing, or answering a prayer, or maybe not answering a prayer that would not have been God’s will. My eyes also became more aware of the beautiful things God created all around me in nature, things maybe I took for granted.

My thankfulness journaling may be a little backwards as I enjoy writing in the mornings, so I make a list of all I am thankful for from the previous day. Some days my page is overflowing with thanksgiving; other times, when I’ve had a challenging day, I may just list the obvious blessings in my life like my home, good health and my family. This daily exercise in thanksgiving has made me more aware of blessings throughout my days and gives me a thankful attitude. When something beautiful happens, I think, “Yes! This must be the blessing God has for me today,” and I am excited to record it the following day.

There is no right or wrong way to be thankful; this is what works for me and I hope it may inspire a spark in you to watch for the great blessings God has picked out just for you today! Most days God blesses us with abundantly more than just one blessing, even though one blessing from Our Father is more than enough.

Throughout the Bible, the antidote for self-pity, discouragement or a hardened heart is always to turn our hearts, minds and spirits to God in thanksgiving, praise and prayer,  shifting our focus from ourselves and our problems to God Almighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords. When we are looking to praise Him with thankful hearts, we can’t help but be joyful and have His peace, and to be thankful.

Lord, thank You for opening my heart and mind to be more thankful, not just in November, but every day.