O Give Thanks

Give thanks to the LORD and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done.

             Psalm 105:1 NLT

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT

One of the more common commandments in the Bible is to give thanks. What is that about? Is God some kind of heavenly neurotic who needs constant encouragement that he is doing a good job? No, that is not the case at all. It is not that God needs to receive thanks, but that we need to give it.

Why is that? I can think of three reasons. The first is that it takes the focus off ourselves, where it ought not to be, and puts it on God, where it should be. (We could ask why that is true, but that is the subject for another reflection.) A thankful person is constantly remembering that all good things come from God and that in him are all the resources to overcome the bad things. That person is not a slave to all the circumstances of life. He or she is free to rise above them into the arms of God.

The second reason why thanks is so necessary for us is that a thankful person is a positive person. He or she has the confidence in a good God to find his good in everything. On the other hand, the thankless person is negative, always seeing what’s wrong with everything and typically blaming others for it. We like to be with thankful people, and we avoid the thankless whenever possible.

The third reason is that a thankful person is a hopeful person. Being able to look back on the past and giving thanks for all the ways God has manifested his love to you, makes it possible to look forward to what is to come not with dread and fear, but with the confidence that God will be in those things and whatever they may be he will turn them to good. “O give thanks to the Lord, for his good, and his unfailing love endures forever.”