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Psalm 100:4–5 NIV

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I always say, let the bible tell you what it means first. So let’s take a look at this concept of ‘thanksgiving’ throughout the bible

Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview

הָלַל

In the OT, the concept of ‘thanks’ comes primarily from hebrew word halal, which means ‘praise’.

We get the word ‘Hallelujah’ from this

Now, this word means ‘praise’, but it can also mean ‘to boast’.

STORY - MY SON BEING VERY KIND TO GUESTS, they would say ‘thanks’, and how I praised him afterwards for it

Now, this concept of hebrew Halal isn’t just in how my son’s friend responded - it’s MORE in the idea of how I responded to him

True thanks is praising how great God Himself is

This is different than simply saying ‘Hey, I have food, thanks!’. It’s not a tickbox of gratefulness.

it starts with us recognizing what we know about God, and how amazing those things are. And we can get that from anywhere.

It can be what we get - but still make it about God. Change it from ‘Thanks for the food’ to ‘God, I know you’re gracious and kind, because of what you’ve done for me and provided to me’.

But it can also be what we experience - we are thankful for healing, we are thankful for direction. But what can we say about God there? ‘God, I know you’re powerful and can do all things, because...’ BLANK. ‘God, I know you’re wise and you know all things, because…’ BLANK.

This is the nature of what praise really is

STORY - CALEB, I’M MEANT TO BE AN ARTIST ONE DAY. Made a big difference to him. Someone told him that at camp. When we just say ‘good drawing’, that’s one level. But when we say ‘I see this about you and who you are because of that’, we’re hitting a whole other level.

This kind of praise forces us to pay attention.

It forces us to constantly steer things back to God, His attributes and character, and what we know about Him

It makes our experiences with God more meaningful - a picture made because my kids love me is one thing, the exact same picture made as a requirement of a school project is another.

In the NEW testament,

Lexham Theological Wordbook Theological Overview

הָלַל

This one to me was a bit more interesting. In the NT- the concept of thanks is connected to the greek work ‘charis’, which means ‘grace’.

In fact, the other word many people use for Communion - Eucharist - comes from the greek word ‘Eucharistia’, which means ‘Thanksgiving’

Now, as much as praise for who God is is essential for true thankfulness to God, there’s another side of that coin. We need to consider what WE are in our experiences. And the word for that is ‘unworthy’.

True thanks is recognizing how everything we have is by grace

When we REALLY praise God, we learn to say ‘This is how great I know God is, because of BLANK’. We point everything back at him and His character.

But we have to be REALLY careful to not let our own concept of what we deserve or should receive creep in there.

In a marriage, there’s often two ways to respond to a gift.

There’s ‘I deserve this, you should do this for me’.

There’s the unexpected ‘oh, thanks for doing this, that was so kind of you!’

The trouble is, under this example - we’re not actually either one of those.

Jeremiah 3:20 NIV

But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord.

See, there’s a third scenario. And that is - the cheating spouse. They do something terrible. They betray their promise and the trust they’ve built up.

But the remaining spouse chooses grace - choose to do something out of love and kindness. Chooses to bless when they have every right to curse. Chooses to forgive when they have every right to judge.

We’re the unfaithful spouse to God

See, when you’re given a gift not just when you don’t expect it - but when you actively think you don’t deserve it and SHOULDN’T receive it - that’s a whole other ballgame.

We don’t receive from God because we’ve earned it. We don’t get things from Him because He owes us. Every bit of it, is because of how Good He is. We’re constantly battling with Him - in our thoughts, our plans, our hopes, and our plans. And He’s constantly faithful to us.

Now, I want to be clear. God’s design for us isn’t to constantly be in remorse - 2 Corinthians 7:10 “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

But the idea is repentance. And understanding the powerful place of grace in our thankfulness constantly leads us to repentence and to recognition of just how good God really is.

Thankfulness in the bible has two parts

Recognizing God for who He is, and how everything he Has done and will do teaches us more and more about His character and goodness

Recognizing that everything God does comes just from Him - and that we have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

So today, let’s give thanks to God.