A Woman's Walk - Week of November 18

  

Thanksgiving
Margaret D. Mitchell
Week of November 18, 2007

“The Lord is my strength, my shield from every danger.  I trust in Him with all my heart.  He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.  I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.”  ~ Psalm 28:7 (NLT)

David knew the power of thanksgiving.  He understood that thanksgiving reflects a humble heart and is rooted in humble gratitude.  He was genuinely grateful.  For him, God was his only solution, his only escape from danger.  And he trusted God to show up and deliver him.  For David, God meant life.

Whether we feel on top of the world, beaming with joy in our hearts over life’s circumstances, or we are faced with a pit, we can always thank God for who He is and for delivering us from every evil darkness into every blessing of light.

James 1:17 says, “every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights . . .” (NKJV). 

Like David, America’s Pilgrim colonists understood thanksgiving as they planned, journeyed and arrived in this new land.  They were grateful to have survived the trip from England.  They were grateful for a new beginning of religious freedom.  They were grateful God blessed them with fruitful crops in the year 1621.  They knew Jehovah-Jireh, their God who provided. 

Thanksgiving honors God.  It is a facet of praise, a biblical precept, a key component of prayer and our Christian love walk.  The dictionary defines thanksgiving as “a prayer that offers thanks to God . . . an expression or an act of giving thanks . . . a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness.”

Philippians 4:6 instructs us to pray and petition God with thanksgiving.  The NIV note for this scripture tells us that thanksgiving is “the antidote to worry.”

Psalm 95:2 says, “Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song.”

I Corinthians 10:16 refers to the communion cup as “the cup of thanksgiving,” which we take in remembrance of Jesus who died for us so we can have eternal life.

The word “Hallelujah,” which we often sing during this season, translates into the Hebrew word “halleluyah,” which literally means “praise ye the Lord.”  The dictionary defines Hallelujah as a thankful cry of “relief, welcome or gratitude.”

Earlier this week, I did a rare thing for myself: I bought a cup of coffee at my local grocery store and decided to take my time shopping for our week’s meals.  God spoke to my heart as I came upon the book aisle.  There, I spotted TV anchor Deborah Norville’s new book, Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You.

“Interesting choice of words,” I thought. 

I flipped through the book, having recalled Mrs. Norville publicly proclaiming years earlier that she is a woman of faith.  I saw that she included lots of supporting material—quotes and studies professing that the principle of thanksgiving works.  And, indeed, in the final chapter, she directly addresses “people of faith,” encouraging readers to attend assemblies of worship.

As I stood in the aisle of that market, I was reminded that the same biblical principles that we Christian are to live by also work in the world.  God doesn’t want to leave anyone out.  He loves us all.

It caused me to pause and ask myself, “How is my attitude of thanksgiving?  How grateful is my heart?  Do I really honor God enough with prayers of thanksgiving?  What gifts from above have I taken for granted?

Indeed, thanksgiving works.  It is a powerful principle.  May we ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, and may we give the Father of lights thanks for every good and perfect gift.

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