Be Thankful

James 1:16–18 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Dear brother’s and sister’s don’t be deceived EVERY good gift you receive is from God, our Father who never changes. He chose to save us by His will, through His Word, making us a sort of firstfruits of HIs creatures.

SO what does our text tell us about God?

God is the one who gives us all things that are good in our life.

God never changes.

He is the author of our salvation.

So what does our text tell us about people?

We are in danger of being deceived.

We can be ungrateful.

We think we can convert people

What does God want us to do in response to our text?

You need to be more thankful.

Jewish blessings. According to Jewish tradition, you are supposed to recite 100 blessings a day. What is a blessing? I found this quote on jewfaq.org,

“This confusion stems largely from difficulties in the translation. The Hebrew word "barukh" is not a verb describing what we do to G-d; it is an adjective describing G-d as the source of all blessings. When we recite a berakhah, we are not blessing G-d; we are expressing wonder at how blessed G-d is.”

3 Types of Blessings

Blessing over material pleasure. (Food, New Clothing,

Blessing over following commandments

Over Seeing Special events Good or Bad

Berakhot recited at special times and events, such as when seeing a rainbow or a king or hearing good or bad news, acknowledge G-d as the ultimate source of all good and evil in the universe. It is important to note that such berakhot are recited for both good things and things that appear to us to be bad. When we see or hear something bad, we praise G-d as "the true Judge," underscoring the fact that things that appear to be bad happen for a reason that is ultimately just, even if we in our limited understanding cannot always see the reason.

Remember from our Wednesday night study on prayer. Example of Israel being taken into captivity in Babylon.

Temple was destroyed

Jerusalem was destroyed

Walls were down

Kingdom is gone

Kingship of Israel was gone

People where carried of to Babylon

Unbelievers were brought into Israel

The Glory of God departed Israel

How many people in Israel do you think thank God for what He was doing through Babylon? Why?

2.