Giving Thanks, By Faith

Giving Thanks, By Faith

Slide Guide, November 22, 2015

Col 2:6-7- “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” NASU

The only way that we can prime the pump so that our lives will then ‘overflow with gratitude’ is by choosing to practice this virtue of ‘giving thanks’, by faith.

Rom 1:20-21- “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks…” NASU

We’re going to look deeper at another wonder about the way our God has made us.

Ps 92:1-7- “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre. You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what You have done. O Lord, what great works You do! And how deep are Your thoughts. Only a simpleton would not know, and only a fool would not understand this: Though the wicked sprout like weeds and evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.” NLT

Matthew Henry: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Praising God is good work: it is good in itself and good for us. It is good, for it is pleasant and profitable, work that is its own wages; it is the work of angels, the work of heaven…”

Even human beings in general benefit from this amazing general grace of God when they engage in the practice of ‘giving thanks’ and incorporate a grateful attitude into their lives.

“31 Benefits of Gratitude”

Having things from the material world is not the problem. What turns the material world into ‘materialism’ is when the the things of the material world ‘have us’.

“…the effect of giving thanks is good. It is a desirable state of mind. It tends to happiness, contentment, peace. A gloomy mind makes all things around more gloomy; an unthankful mind is an unhappy mind; a murmuring, complaining, dissatisfied mind makes its possessor wretched, and all around him miserable. It is good as it is due to God. For all His favor we should be thankful—and all that we enjoy is His gift… ”

For every good benefit that God has built into the practice of us ‘giving thanks’ there is an opposite injury that comes from the neglect of this habit of gratitude.

James 1:17-18- Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” NASU

Psalm 92 is the only Psalm designated for the Sabbath: “A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath day”.

‘As soldiers march best to music; Christians live best in praise.’

Our church family service times together are to be permeated with thanksgiving.

And they are to be filled with this understanding of how foolish it is to not recognize how good it really is to give thanks and praise to the Lord for His great works and of all He has done for us.

We are the recipients of the greatest love ever shown through the salvation by our Lord and Savior. We are the children of God’s mercies, and His mercies are new every morning. We are the objects of His great works…

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim Your unfailing love in the morning, Your faithfulness in the evening…”