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GIVING THANKS
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Thanksgiving is an activity in which we give to God
instead of asking Him to give to us, because the grateful heart has access
to God’s grace. To understand what it is to give thanks, we can start with
Hebrews 12:28, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let
us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear.” The King James Version says, “Let us have grace,” the NIV says, “Let
us be thankful.”
The word in the Greek for grace is CHARIS, which requires
one to say “Thank you.” There is a direct connection between grace and
thankfulness, between receiving grace and giving thanks. When we are
unthankful, we are out of the grace of God. We cannot enjoy God’s grace without
being thankful. Nor can we separate thankfulness from the grace of God. And
whether we say, “Let us be thankful.” or “Let us have grace.” we are really
saying the same thing.
First, thankfulness provides access to God. The best
place to see this is in Psalm 100. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and
into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (Psalm
100:4) Notice that two stages of access to God are mentioned here. The first is
through the gates; the second is through His courts. The gates give admission
to the courts, and the courts give you access to the house of God. But you
cannot enter except by the prescribed route ”into His gates with thanks-giving,
and into His courts with praise.” A person gains no close access to God unless
he or she comes this prescribed way with thanksgiving and praise. Some of you
may feel at times, despite your prayers, that you’re a long way from God. Quite
possibly the reason is that you’re not approaching Him by the prescribed route.
You can stand outside the courts and shout at God, and He will hear and have
mercy on you. But you won’t enjoy close access to the Father unless you come
with thanksgiving and praise.
Why should I thank Him? In this psalm, the psalmist has
given three reasons why you should be thankful: “For the Lord is good; his mercy
is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). No
matter how we feel, no matter what our circumstances, three facts never change:
The Lord is always good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all
generations. So we have three permanent, unchanging reasons for thanking God.
Don’t focus on your feelings. Don’t focus on your situation. Focus on these
eternal, unchanging aspects of God’s nature and of His dealings with us. Then
you will find yourself thanking God ceaselessly.
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