Thanking God For More Than Those Things He Has Given Us

Mike Hosey, Elder

For what I have received, may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received. - Margaret Storm Jameson, Novelist.

The truth in Storm's quote is both easy to understand, and undeniably hard to miss for anyone who has taken an honest evaluation of his own life and history. It is the truth in that quote that makes me favor the holiday of Thanksgiving as much as I do.

In fact, I tend to favor it more than I do Christmas. And I tend to favor it more than I do Easter. Please don't get me wrong. I love both of those holidays. But I also can't deny that the spirituality of Christmas is often lost to the economics of modern commercialism. And Easter isn't much better. Easter isn't even the original name of that Christian holiday. Easter is the anglicized name of the pagan goddess Ishtar. Much of the symbolism of that holiday is almost lost to the pagan practices that come with that name.

But ironically, Thanksgiving, a secular holiday, has at its core a simple spirituality that is not yet lost to our human selfishness. Thanksgiving is simply that. Giving thanks.

For those of us who are followers of Jesus, this a special time set aside to give thanks to God for all that he has done for us. It is a time to give thanks for those things we have received (Psalm 136:1-26), as well as a time for giving thanks for those things we deserve, but that we have not received (John 3:16, Romans 8:1).

But it shouldn't be the only time that we give thanks.  The bible teaches us to give thanks always and for everything (Ephesians 5:20). That everything includes all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

In giving this thanks we remind ourselves and those around us that God's love endures forever and transcends all generations (Psalm 100:1-5).

And it keeps us from becoming like the wicked in the last days who possess an ungrateful character and no longer give thanks (2 Timothy 3:2).

 So I urge you to be thankful for all the things God has done in your life - for those things you have received, and for those things you haven't.