Thanksgiving I: A Saint is grateful for all that he is blessed with

A blessed new year and welcome back to school!

How was your school holidays?

Did you go overseas? Where did you go? Was it fun?

If you’ve been to Hong Kong during late Nov,

Or have heard the news, you’d probably know about a fire that broke out at a Hong Kong apartment.

At least 161 people have died.

One of the boys I met at the Boarding House during the holidays shared that he was thankful to God that he and his family escaped the fire.

That made me go “wow!”

Because usually people share about the fun and nice things that have happened to them.

But being thankful to God for something like escaping a horrible holiday isn’t something common.

St Paul tells us in the Bible, in Ephesians 5:20, to “(give) thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here giving thanks always doesn’t just mean to always say “thank you” wherever you go.

But it also means to be known as a person who always give thanks.

Giving thanks isn’t just frequently, sometimes, or often,

Like when someone gives you a present or when someone helps you, then you say “thank you”

But the Bible tells to “give thanks always”.

And we don’t just give thanks for only the good things that happened to us.

But the Bible says “for everything”, whether good.

We are grateful for everything that God has blessed us with.

But we are thankful for the lessons that God has taught us.

And also all that are coming our way.

Why do we give thanks in everything?

Because things don’t just happen randomly in our lives.

You don’t just get to go to Japan for holiday because your parents have money.

And like that boy in Boarding House, you don’t randomly go to Hong Kong to be saved from a deadly fire.

The reason we give thanks in everything is because we are giving thanks to GOD the father,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who loved us and gave himself up for us (v.2).

When we give thanks in everything, we are saying to God,

“God, all the good and bad things in my life are from you.”

“The good things are blessings from you, so that I can one day bless others with them.”

“The not so good things are lessons from you, so that I can grow to become more like Jesus.”

“Most importantly, everything that I have and don’t have, everything that happens or doesn’t happen in my life,

they are all under your control.

Because you have all the power as the King of the whole world.”

So how can you give thanks to God in everything?

Giving thanks isn’t just about saying “thank you God for the food that I eat...” like in the Boarding House.

It is also not just about saying to the teacher “Thank you, goodbye, and may God bless you.”

But it is especially about how you live your life as a saint who practises the value of thanksgiving.

As we begin a new year, let us being thankful saints by living TRUE WISE lives in making the best use of our time (vv15-16).

Because when we use our time wisely to study and to play, our teachers, parents, and friends worry less about us,

And thank God for our wisdom.

Let us also be thankful by being careful in what you think in your mind,

and what comes out from your mouth.

An ungrateful person will keep thinking of what people or the world owe them,

and will keep saying bad and negative things out of the anger and sadness in their hearts.

But a thankful person is grateful and contented with the blessings and lessons God has given him

and will often say nice and good things out of the joy and peace in his heart.

Not only that, he will often be filled with the Spirit,

encouraging other people with psalms, hymns, songs,

singing and making melody to the Lord with their hearts. (vv18-19)

This new year, may God help us all to give thanks always for everything to Him,

as saints who live TRUE and WISE lives.

And as imitators of God, as God’s beloved children (v1).