Well, Thanksgiving Day as now come and gone! I Have got to say that it is one of the holidays that I enjoy most in the whole year! Family and friends gathered together all around the world, when they were fellowshipping, feasting around the table, and creating wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. What a wonderful time!
I can’t help but to wonder how many people actually prayed a sincere prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude before the feasting began.
These days there’s a lot of people that see Thanksgiving Day as nothing other than eating, drinking, and watching the football game. As a matter of fact, you’ll hear some people call it Turkey Day, but friends, Thanksgiving Day is more than just turkey, ham, and all the fixings. Thanksgiving Day is a special time set apart to reflect and to express our Thankfulness and gratitude to God as our only true source for living.
With all that’s going on around the world, you may not always feel that you have a lot to be grateful for this season, but gratitude should not depend on our circumstances.
(Psalm 50:23) says- “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”
Friends, God honors us when we give Thanks and Praise to Him, no matter what the season looks like for us, yes, even in times of suffering! In fact, Thanksgiving to God is essential for our joy in the midst of our suffering.
Some people may say “it doesn’t make much sense to thank Him if we are going through hard times.”
Well, it may not make sense to you maybe, but to God it does, remember God honors Praise and Thanksgiving to Him!
There are those who have to have a reason to Worship, Praise, or Thank God , but you see, the Bible says that God is Sovereign! So if that’s true, then I don’t need a reason to worship Him, I don’t need a reason to give Him praise, I don’t need a reason to give Him thanks?
In other words, I don’t need to wait for something good to happen in my personal life in order to praise Him and give Him the thanks that He alone is worthy of! Brothers and sisters, we simply worship Him because He is GOD!!!
So should we praise Him and thank Him only in the good? Certainly not! We should do like Job and praise Him and thank Him, even in times of trouble!! (Job 1:20-22) says: “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
I believe that It’s in those times where you may find it the hardest to be thankful for anything but you thank Him anyway, that He actually honors the most!
I know there’s times that you just don’t feel thankful. Maybe you’re going through something difficult, maybe you’re suffering and nobody understands, and maybe you don’t want to get up and come to church that day because you just don’t feel like it. We’ve all been there before.
But when you decide to go to church anyway, and you lift your hands and begin to praise and worship God with a heart of Thanksgiving. What happens?
The focus shifts from your situation to God, and then He lifts the weight of the burden that you are facing. Amen
Dear friends, when you express a heart of Thanksgiving to God, it invites His presence into your situation and He has a way of lifting the load off of our lives! Amen.
Let me ask you something, do you think Jesus felt like being nailed to the cross??
So with that in mind, I’m going to go to church even if I don’t feel like it, I’m going to sing even if I don’t feel like it, I’m going to clap even if I don’t feel like it! I’m going to praise even if I don’t feel like it , I’m going to shout Hallelujah even if I don’t feel like it, and you guessed it, I’m going to give God thanks, even if I don’t feel like it!! Amen
Church, this is what Thanksgiving is all about and I pray that this Thanksgiving Day will merely be a reminder, that for the believer in Jesus Christ, Thanksgiving is every day. Dear friends if you absolutely need something tangible in order to be thankful for, Then look to the Cross because that is enough... (John 3:16,17) 16 For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
Your brother in Christ,
Billy Montes
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Pastor Montes’ column is being published after Thanksgiving, since our deadlines were moved forward to an earlier publication date, and is still very good information and advice about being thankful every day.)