November 21st, 2023
As Thanksgiving approaches, I’ve been thinking about the power of thankfulness. The question this week is whether our “thanksgiving” will be reserved for one day or if it will be our lifestyle. Do we live in a posture of gratitude, or do we only thank God before we eat a meal, out of habit? Gratitude is actually the one thing we should always have when we come before the presence of the Lord! Psalms 100:4 says,
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
It doesn’t say to come into His house with your requests or even your good works. It says to come with thanksgiving and praise!
In the Old Testament, there were actually sacrifices of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:11-15). However, just as with all of God’s instructions, if they were done with the wrong attitude, it meant nothing to God. He addressed this in Psalm 50:12-15 saying,
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Psalms 50:23 picks this up a few verses later saying,
“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
An offering given in obligations means nothing to the Lord, and it’s the same today. We could bring God everything we have or work for our whole lives trying to deserve what He’s done, and it will never be enough. However, God is glorified when our hearts are truly thankful. It’s a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats!
God knows our hearts and he doesn’t want habitual religious dedication with no life in it. Habits and discipline in our life aren’t a bad thing, unless we lose sight of their purpose. Praying before we eat is an example of a good Christian habit. There is no commandment in the Bible that tells us to pray before we eat, but we do see it patterned in the life of Jesus. Matthew 14:19-20, for example, says,
“He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied.”
Jesus thanked the Father for the small meal He had, and it then became enough to satisfy the multitudes, with leftovers!
My favorite example of Jesus modeling this type of thanksgiving is found in Matthew 26:26-29 when He blessed the Passover meal and instituted what we now know as communion. It says,
“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
That one meal—the bread, representing Jesus’ body, and the wine representing His blood—would also be multiplied to the multitudes. We are still receiving from that same table
today! However, just as it was then, thanksgiving is a requirement to receive! See, I don’t believe God just suggests that we come into His house with thanksgiving. It’s a commandment and I truly believe that we cannot come into the presence of God without it! Colossians 4:2 says,
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
Philippians 4:6 says,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Thanksgiving changes the posture of our heart and allows us to enter His presence and receive. Prayer must be accompanied with thanksgiving, or it’s just grumbling and complaining. The pharisees grumbled in Jesus’ day, and they missed out on the greatest revelation the world had ever known. John 6:41-44 says,
“So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
The King was in their midst, and they argued with Him instead of receiving from Him. Their religious dogmatism kept them from the bread of heaven and life itself. The tragedy is that we can do this very thing today, by rejecting the life Jesus offers. He is still reaching out His hand to all of humanity, saying, “Take eat, this is my body, broken for you.” He is still holding out the cup to the broken saying, “This is the blood of my covenant. Drink it, all of you.”
He's a good Father and His hand isn’t extended to us with anything but His goodness. Matthew 7:9-11 says,
“Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
This week, as we spend time with our families and eat more food than we need, let’s posture our hearts to both receive and pour His presence out to a hungry world. When we lift up Jesus, He will draw all men unto Himself, through us. However, we can only dwell in His presence continually when we maintain an attitude of thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4)! As Colossians 2:6-7 says,
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
It doesn’t say to come into His house with your requests or even your good works. It says to come with thanksgiving and praise!
In the Old Testament, there were actually sacrifices of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:11-15). However, just as with all of God’s instructions, if they were done with the wrong attitude, it meant nothing to God. He addressed this in Psalm 50:12-15 saying,
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Psalms 50:23 picks this up a few verses later saying,
“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
An offering given in obligations means nothing to the Lord, and it’s the same today. We could bring God everything we have or work for our whole lives trying to deserve what He’s done, and it will never be enough. However, God is glorified when our hearts are truly thankful. It’s a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats!
God knows our hearts and he doesn’t want habitual religious dedication with no life in it. Habits and discipline in our life aren’t a bad thing, unless we lose sight of their purpose. Praying before we eat is an example of a good Christian habit. There is no commandment in the Bible that tells us to pray before we eat, but we do see it patterned in the life of Jesus. Matthew 14:19-20, for example, says,
“He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied.”
Jesus thanked the Father for the small meal He had, and it then became enough to satisfy the multitudes, with leftovers!
My favorite example of Jesus modeling this type of thanksgiving is found in Matthew 26:26-29 when He blessed the Passover meal and instituted what we now know as communion. It says,
“As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
That one meal—the bread, representing Jesus’ body, and the wine representing His blood—would also be multiplied to the multitudes. We are still receiving from that same table
today! However, just as it was then, thanksgiving is a requirement to receive! See, I don’t believe God just suggests that we come into His house with thanksgiving. It’s a commandment and I truly believe that we cannot come into the presence of God without it! Colossians 4:2 says,
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
Philippians 4:6 says,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Thanksgiving changes the posture of our heart and allows us to enter His presence and receive. Prayer must be accompanied with thanksgiving, or it’s just grumbling and complaining. The pharisees grumbled in Jesus’ day, and they missed out on the greatest revelation the world had ever known. John 6:41-44 says,
“So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
The King was in their midst, and they argued with Him instead of receiving from Him. Their religious dogmatism kept them from the bread of heaven and life itself. The tragedy is that we can do this very thing today, by rejecting the life Jesus offers. He is still reaching out His hand to all of humanity, saying, “Take eat, this is my body, broken for you.” He is still holding out the cup to the broken saying, “This is the blood of my covenant. Drink it, all of you.”
He's a good Father and His hand isn’t extended to us with anything but His goodness. Matthew 7:9-11 says,
“Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
This week, as we spend time with our families and eat more food than we need, let’s posture our hearts to both receive and pour His presence out to a hungry world. When we lift up Jesus, He will draw all men unto Himself, through us. However, we can only dwell in His presence continually when we maintain an attitude of thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4)! As Colossians 2:6-7 says,
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
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