In Second Corinthians 9:8-11, Paul tells us this: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”
You and I are ridiculously blessed (or “enriched” as Paul put it here) in ways which are too numerous to even begin to count, are we not? For example, many of us will be traveling in the comfort and convenience of a car to the comfort of a warm welcome, a warm home, and a warm stove (and, not to mention the warm glow of the TV as it brings to us parades, football, and old movies). Truly, there is a lot to be thankful for, not just on that one day of the year, but on every day of the year.
It is good for us to give thanks to God for all He has done for us (Psalm 92:1). The Lord our God is good (Psalm 106:1; 107:1; 118:29; 136:1). I encourage you to pause your reading of this for just a moment and think about every specific thing God has blessed you with and has done for you today. If you were to count them and name them one by one (as the song we sing suggests you do), how many could you list? When you begin listing every specific thing, that list grows quickly and seemingly endlessly! This is what God has done for us: He has extended to us His tender mercies in so many ways that we don’t even recognize most of them. And, He does this every day. He is so good! And, far above all of the daily blessings, He has blessed us with His own Son to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we could be saved from our sins and go to Heaven in the end. “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15)! He has given us THE victory in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
It is because of all of this that we should praise the Lord and thank Him for all He has done and all He has promised to do. We should thank Him in proclaiming both His greatness and His goodness throughout our lives to everyone we meet (1 Chronicles 16:8; Psalm 107). I offer a challenge to you: over the next week, tell everyone you meet something for which you are thankful to God. And, if I might challenge you a little more: try and make it something different every time. Additionally, let us not just tell people that we are thankful, but let us show it by singing praises of thanks to the Lord and let us never be silent (Psalm 30:12)! Likewise, let us thank Him in every prayer we offer, continually and earnestly praying to God with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6; Colossians 4:2).
The Lord is so good to us, it is beyond our ability to fully comprehend just how good He is to us. Let us always thank Him in everything we do for everything He does (Hebrews 13:15; Psalm 119:62)!
~Curtis Carwile
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