Parenting

Thanksgiving All Year Round

Scriptures: Psalms 75:1
by Jacob Abshire on November 17, 2014

Thanksgiving is just one day, but a thankful heart is the Christian lifestyle. We only need to see God’s wondrous deeds to fill our hearts with thanksgiving.

I’m an advocate of using your context to your advantage. Last week, I described how to use Thanksgiving as way to develop gratitude in the hearts of your family. But cultivating thankful hearts is not something we should do once a year. It’s an ongoing Christian expression.

Charles Spurgeon said “stinted gratitude is ingratitude.” He reasoned, “for infinite goodness there should be measureless thanks.”1 But of course! Our God, who is infinitely good in nature and measure, should be praised as often as He is good. Meaning, if we only give Him thanks for the good things He is presently doing, then we will never have an end to our thanksgiving—for He never ends in doing good.

Thanksgiving should be a normal practice in the Christian home. It should be on the tip of the tongue that utters words heavenward. It is so practical, so necessary, and so logical, that it should characteristically mark you as a Christ follower. In fact, it should mark you if you have breath. All who breathe enjoy some level of goodness from God, even if it’s a little. How much more for we who have received His redemptive goodness!

Notice the subtle lessons found in Psalm 75:1:

“We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds.”

If we join the psalmist in heart, let us own thanksgiving. It is ours to give when no one else will. It is our double duty since we are not just recipients of common grace, but also special grace. We have been graced twice! God is good to us as people, but particularly good to us as His people.

Moreover, the nearness we have in Christ is nearer than that of the psalmist in the Old Testament. While God’s chosen people experienced His presence around them, we experience His presence within us. God is good in giving us His Spirit to dwell in our hearts. His name is near us evenmore.

Finally, “we recount [God’s] wondrous deeds” because they are wondrous indeed. Their wonderful quality should spur our gratitude. And, when we offer thanksgiving, we should recount them particularly so that our ears hear as much as those among us. In doing so, we might spur others to marvel at God’s wondrous deeds.

Does that describe you? Do you sense God’s wondrous deeds so that you may give thanks to Him? He is near and doing good. You just have to see it. Pray that God would help you see His goodness so that you might be more thankful.

  1. Spurgeon, C. H. “Psalm LXXV.” The Treasury of David. Vol. 2. McLean, Virginia: MacDonald, 1988. 293. Print.

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