At this time of year many stop and take stock of all for which they should be thankful. There are so many blessing to be enjoyed. Health, family, friends, prosperity, jobs, and the list could go on and on. Taking time to give thanks is a good thing, but it should be happening continually not just on one special day. Everyone should also realize to whom the giving of thanks should be addressed.
"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:" (Psa 92:1). Of all the servants of God about whom we read in the Bible, David is perhaps the most thankful. His love and adoration for God is seen throughout the Psalms. When one studies about all the trials that David had to endure, the question comes to mind, "How did he ever endure such things"? The answer is seen in his writings of the Psalms.
Are we as trusting and as thankful to God as we need to be? When we are having troubles it is a natural thing for Christians to offer prayers to God. Prayer to our creator is one of the many blessings God’s children enjoy. This attitude of trust and need for God must be followed (even as David is our example) by giving thanks to God for the answer to our prayers. Preachers are called to bedsides to offer up supplications for someone who is sick, or who is to undergo surgery and this is good. Yet few times are preachers asked to lead prayers of thanksgiving when those who were ill recover. Understand that preachers do not have to lead either of these prayers, it just stands out that the request for help many times seems to take precedent over the prayer of thanksgiving.
God gives us so many blessings. Prayers of thanksgiving and trust should flow as a rolling stream from the lips of His children. Of these blessings James wrote, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning". (James 1: 17). How many gifts come to us without a word of thanks being given back to God? Do we take time to thank God for the opportunity to be His child, and for the sacrifice He gave for us? What about the physical blessing we enjoy? What about our health and strength, our spouse and children, our Church family, the teachers and song leaders, and the congregation itself? May we never take these blessings for granted.
A failure of men to stop and offer thanks for blessings from God even happened to our Lord while He was on the earth. Recorded in Luke the seventeenth chapter is the account of the ten lepers. One man a Samaritan turned back and fell at the feet of Jesus offering thanks to Him; only one out of ten. Do we stand beside the Samaritan man or with the nine ungrateful?
As David wrote, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD...".