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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.
Thanksgiving unlocks the supernatural miracle power of
God. There is one notable New Testament example. The first of these is the
feeding of the 5,000 recorded in the Gospel of John. There were 5,000 men
besides the women and children. The only resource for these hungry people was
the lunch of a little boy, two fishes and five small loaves. Notice what
transpired: And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he
distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and
likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said
unto his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the
fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them
that had eaten” (John 6:11-13). In this situation Jesus didn’t pray. He
didn’t ask God to do a thing. All He did was thank God for what He had in His
hand.
The importance of giving thanks is reemphasized when the
Holy Ghost spotlights the location of the miracle. Howbeit there came other
boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the
Lord had given thanks: (John 6:23) There are many notable details that we like
to point out in this story. Details such as the boy with something to offer,
the large crowd that wanted to eat, the twelve baskets of fragments from the
loaves and the fish, etc. Apparently, Jesus giving thanks released the miracle
not by a long prayer, but simply by giving thanks! Many times we miss out on
the power of God simply because we don’t release it by giving thanks.
Unless we cultivate the habit of thanking God, we will
miss out on much of the supernatural power of God. Long prayers do not
necessarily release such power. Most of the powerful prayers in the Bible are
very short. If we mix more thanksgiving with our petitions, our petitions may
be shorter and actually more effective.
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