I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving time with your family. We had a non-traditional one with ours, but all the same a very great time.
I was thinking about being thankful and I didn’t want to just post about everything that I am thankful for, because everyone is doing that. I want to do something special to show how grateful I am. I am still actually thinking about what to do and yes, I know Thanksgiving is over, but as my good friend, Paulie said in his post, “Why do we have one day dedicated to giving thanks?“.
What he said is very true. Why do we only have one day a year that we recognize that we need to be thankful?? We should be thankful and show it everyday. Not just on the last Thursday in November every year.
Mom did a great post on “Thankfulness, Gratitude, Gratefulness“, and she gave me a little inspiration to go a little deeper into what thanksgiving really means.
Thanksgiving is:

1. the act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors, esp. to God.
2. an expression of thanks, esp. to God.
3. a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.
4. a day set apart for giving thanks to God.

So pretty much thanksgiving is about God. Guess the Pilgrims had the right idea about the very essence of what Thanksgiving is really about. It was all about God to them.
They were thankful to God for bringing them safely from Europe. They were thankful for the freedom to worship God the way they wanted. They were thankful that God still protected them even after they got to America. They were thankful that He sent the Indians to help them.
They were thankful to God for everything.

In writing this post, I thought I would take a look at what the Bible says about thanksgiving. Because really we have strayed soo far in our society from what Thanksgiving is really about.
We get caught up in our holidays, that I don’t think we really take the time to realize what they really mean. I mean, we went from halloween decorations to Christmas ones. Thanksgiving isn’t really something anyone takes the time to ponder on. That is because we are an unthankful people.

Leviticus 22:29
“And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will.”

But that does not mean to do it once a year or even when you just feel like it. It means offer it of your own will. We should not have to be told that we need to be thankful or even show it. We need to do it of our own volition. God is not a god that makes his people do what they are supposed to. He wants us to do it because we are thankful and we love Him and want to show it.

The Bible talks a lot about thanksgiving, so it must be important to God. David had a lot to say about thanksgiving, and I think he must have known that it was something that God really wants from His people.
God loves it when we praise His name, but He loves it even more when we praise it with thanksgiving. Here are some verses that talk about that:

Psalm 69:30
“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

Psalm 147:7
“Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:”

I really loved this one. Not only do we sing and praise God’s name, but when we do, we can magnify it by doing it with thanksgiving.

Psalm 95:2
“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.”

Psalm 100:4-5
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

When we come to God, we should come with thanksgiving to Him. We should not just come only with requests and praises, but also come with thanksgiving to Him.

Psalm 107:22
“And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing”

Psalm 116:17
“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.”

When we give thanksgiving to God it declares His wondrous works and we should rejoice in the fact that we can give Him praise that will show everyone that He is worthy of all our thanks.

Jonah 2:9
“But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.“

Our thanksgiving praise to God is something that we should not take lightly. There is so much that we have to be thankful for just to God.

2 Corinthians 9:11
“Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”

We are truly a blessed people. Our blessings flow from God. We should automatically be giving thanks to God for everything.

Philippians 4:6
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

This verse is pretty well known I think, but have you noticed that it says, “Be careful for nothing.” What does that mean?? I am going to think to think on that one for a bit, but I had never noticed that it said that before and I wonder what it means.
Do you know what supplication means?? I have heard supplication used in the Bible a lot, but not really understood what it meant. It means: an act or instance of supplicating; humble prayer, entreaty, or petition. Not only are we supposed to pray for everything, but we are to pray with thanksgiving. That is the way we should come to God.

Colossians 4:2
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”

It is repeated over and over in the Scriptures that we are to come to God with thanksgiving. We should not just come to Him with what we want, but we should always be THANKING Him.

Revelation 7:12
“Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

Lastly we when we are finished with our prayers, we are to end with thanksgiving too. Giving thanks to God forever and ever.
Everything should begin and end with thanksgiving to God. This Thanksgiving season, let’s not only show our thankfulness on November 22nd, but everyday for the rest of our lives.
Not only is it pleasing to God to receive our thanksgiving, but it is a way we can show Him how much He means to us. Now you don’t want to do that only once a year do you??
As Always,