Thankfulness

Colossians 4:2

2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

topical on thanksgiving

how will we give those thanks? Will they be words and an appearance of thanksgiving, or will we give sincere thanksgiving from the heart? Surely all of us can understand that in every thing we do, God is looking at the heart. He knows if we are genuine and sincere in what we do. We can fool people easily, but we cannot fool God. You see, we look at the outer man and God looks at the heart. Sometimes, we can appear so sincere in what we do and say, that people believe we are genuine. However, we may know that deep down we are not. We can see this illustrated in children. One offends another and we make him or her apologize. "I,m sorry!" they yell, but their words are not sincere. We tell them again to apologize. This time they cry and say "I'm sorry." But how many of them are really sorry in their heart? We have no way of knowing, but God knows if they are saying it from the heart or not. He also knows when we are simply being polite rather than truly considerate of other. He always sees and knows the heart. So we cannot judge by appearances.

John 7:23-24 Jesus rebuking the Jewish leaders accusing Him of lawbreaking (healing on the Sabbath)

22 But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.)

23 For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath?

24 Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.”

Let’s use a lot of care in judging others —-\ we cannot see their hearts. There is the story of a man who said grace at breakfast and gave thanks for the food. soon he began to complain about the bacon and said the coffee was bitter. His little girl asked him if God heard his prayer. Of course He did!, responded the father. Then she asked, did God hear what you said about the bacon and coffee. A little hesitant, the father replied yes. Then she asked, which one does God believe?) We are taught in both the Old and New Testaments that we should give thanks to God. Listen to some simple but profound commandments regarding our giving of thanks to God.

Psalm 100:4–5 (NLT)

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Praise and thanks giving are real mood changers for the better. more than that though, God is pleased when we are giving Him the glory due His name

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NLT)

16 Always be joyful.

17 Never stop praying.

18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

It does not take much thought to arrive at the conclusion that God has blessed us and we are to thank Him. The Bible gives us an illustration of one who thanked Jesus from the heart.

Luke 17:15–19 (NLT) 10 Lepers

15One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!”

16He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.

17Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?

18Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

19And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

He was a leper and Jesus healed him, so he glorified God, returned to the Lord, fell at His feet giving him thanks. Does anyone here doubt the sincerity of those words of thanks? God knows if our thanksgiving is sincere. The reason is simple, He sees the heart. The Bible reminds us that we do not have to tell Him what is in our hearts, because He already knows.

Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT)

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Everyday our lives are filled with blessings from our gracious heavenly Father. He is worthy of our thanks and praise.

Here’s an idea for you…Do you ever have sleepless nights? Do you count sheep to go to sleep? Well try counting blessings The many blessings you recall will give you peace and joy.) Hopefully you will then be able to fall asleep, giving sincere thanks from the heart. Let us be honest with ourselves and with God. All too often we do not even speak the words of thanksgiving. But even when we do, too often we do not say them from the heart. The way it should be is that our words and deeds are mere extensions of the feelings of our hearts.

1 Corinthians 8:3 (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:3 (NLT)

3But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

It reminds us that if we love God He will know it. So when we speak of our love, mean it. When we speak in repentance and say "I'm sorry," mean it. Also when we say "thank you, Lord," may we mean every word. Let us be sincere in our thanksgiving, for if we are truly thankful to God, He will see it in our heart. So then, if we are not as honest in our words as we should be, let us work at trying to improve the situation. Some may say, how can I cultivate a more thankful spirit? Do you have any suggestions? I have three suggestions that I hope will help us all on Thanksgiving Day and every day. 1]BELIEVE —Do you know that the Bible is true and that all you have comes from God

If youn arent sure

James 1:16–18 (NLT)

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.

17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

Or do you down deep in your heart feel, "Well I have worked hard for what I have."? If you think you got it on your own, you will never have true gratitude in your heart. 2] We shouldn’t be COMPARING our lives to those of others. surely we are not to be proud and gloat at the misfortune of others. Also when we see others who have less than we have, then we can realize how blessed we truly are. Thankfulness isn’t a competition though. To get past this , I remember that God make me exactly how He wanted me to be.

Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

27So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Jeremiah 1:4–5 (NLT) Jeremiah’s call

4The Lord gave me this message:

5“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

Accepting this seems to free me from comparisons. There is peace in realizing I can just be myself, with a right heart, and persue the reasons He put me here.

3]Gratitude!! In other words take time to count your blessings. Don't just take them for granted. Look into the face of your friends and siblings and say they are some of my blessings. Look towards eternity and remember what Jesus did for you on the cross and say these are some of my greatest blessings. Look at the food on your table and the clothes you have and the house you live in and know they are blessings too. could go on and on, there are so many, but you and I must count I believe you will thank God from the heart. We must work at preparing our HEARTS for thanksgiving. We are told that Ezra prepared his heart to see the Lord. Ezra 7:10. We need to prepare our hearts that God may see true gratitude in our hearts, and that men may see our thanksgiving by our outward appearance. I hope true conviction will come to us as the farmer who was feeding his livestock. When an ox licked his arm, he remembered Isaiah 1:3 and was convicted of his ingratitude to God. A truly thankful heart will not just happen, we must work diligently at this spiritual endeavor. However, the fruit of the labor will benefit us the rest of our lives. Then when we say to God "Thank You!", we will really mean it and will be drawn closer to God Who blesses us daily. Sincere words of thanksgiving must come from "A Thankful Heart." Is your heart such a heart? If not work on it and maybe by Thursday, you will truly have a thankful heart. May God bless us all to be sincere in our thanksgiving this Thanksgiving Day and every day we are blessed to live.

Colossians 4:3, 4

Colossians 4:3–4 (NLT)

3Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.

4Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

This intrigues me. Paul says, “Pray for us—not that we’ll get out of here, but that the Word will go forth from here.” I think if I were writing this, I would say, “Please pray for me that I’ll get out of here. I’m tired of being in prison.” Not so Paul. He says, “My desire is that God’s Word will go forth from here, that those around me will really see that Christ lives in me.” Truly, this is the way to pray.

A few months ago, I saw a billboard that said: Pray. It works. And I thought, True—but what if it doesn’t work? Most of the time we pray small prayers like, “Get me out of here.” And when they don’t work, we stop praying instead of learning what prayer really is. Prayer is not to get God to see things our way, but rather to get us to see things His way.

I read the story of an Arkansas woman who was confronted by a burglar who, after ripping the phone out of the wall, ordered her into the closet. After dropping to her knees, she asked the burglar if she could pray for him. “I want you to know that God loves you and I forgive you,” she said. The burglar looked at her and apologized for what he had done. Then he yelled out the door to his partner in a pickup truck, “We gotta unload all this. She’s a Christian lady. We can’t do this to her!” The woman remained on her knees, and the burglar returned the furniture he had already taken from her home. Then he took the bullets out of his gun, handed her the gun, and walked out the door.

This lady could have prayed, “Get me out of here,” but instead she prayed like Paul. “Could I pray for you?” she asked the burglar. That’s in harmony with the heart of God. How do I know? Because of what Jesus said on the Cross. He didn’t say, “Get me out of here,” He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t understand what’s going on” (see Luke 23:34).

How I want to be more like Paul. I’ve got so much to learn in this arena—but I see the principle and the rightness of what Paul is modeling here as he prays not to get out of prison, but that he’ll have boldness and wisdom in any situation.