Note: This will be my last message of the week. As I take my thanksgiving break to be with my family, I pray you do the same as well. So, from my family to yours, may you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day. May the love of God fill your heart, may you be surrounded with friends and family, and may God’s peace flow TO you and THROUGH you as you enjoy one another.
I will share a message about living a lifestyle of Thanksgiving this morning. Everyday should be a day of Thanksgiving for the believer.
In Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica he taught us how to live a life pleasing to God. In his closing remarks he said, “Always be full of joy. Never stop praying. Whatever happens, always be thankful. This is how God wants you to live in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thes 5:16-18 ERV).
So what does this mean to you today? As we give some thought to being “thankful,” I will give you a few things to be thankful for. Let’s get into them:
1. God loves you with an everlasting and unconditional love.
a) Nothing you did caused God to start loving you and nothing you do will make Him stop.
b) God’s love is not based on your performance. His love is based on His grace. This means that it is not contingent upon what you do or fail to do.
c) I am continually amazed by God’s love. The God who sits on the circle of the earth actually takes time to think about me. He loved me so much that He gave His only begotten son as a sacrifice for me. And He loves me so much now that He actually took up residence inside of me when He gave me His Holy Spirit. His love is immeasurable, unfailing, and almost unbelievable. But it’s true. God loves me and He loves you. That is a great reason to be thankful!
2. You are not a mistake. You are here for God’s purpose.
a) You were born when you were born and where you were born because of WHY you were born. God birthed you into this planet on purpose!
b) God prepared for your arrival, He prepared everything you would ever need to be successful, and He is not preparing you for what He prepared!
c) You never qualified for the plans God made for you. Jesus qualified you before the world began. Therefore, you cannot disqualify yourself, because you never qualified in the first place. That’s something to be thankful for!
3. God has been better to you than you have been to Him.
a) If God gave us only what we deserve, we would all be men/women-most-miserable! But thankfully He blesses us by grace, not our performance.
b) God’s goodness towards you far exceeds your performance towards Him. That’s a reason to be thankful!
4. God will NEVER give up on you!
a) God will never leave you, forsake you, or turn His back on you (Heb 13:5,6).
b) The Bible tells us that we can be confident in the fact that God WILL finish what He started in our lives (Phil 1:6). God won’t do it because we are so good. He will do it because He is so good!
c) God is tirelessly dedicated to you and to the plans He made for you before the world began. Even when you are faithless towards Him, He remains faithful towards you. For God to deny or disown you, He would have to deny and disown Himself (see 2 Tim 2:13). That’s a reason to be thankful!
Closing Confession:
Father, I thank for planning for me before I was born. For saving me from hell. For washing me in the Blood of Your Son, Jesus. For filling me with Your Spirit. For calling me according to Your purpose. For loving me even when I ignored You. For never turning Your back on me. For looking past my faults, flaws and failures. For decided to use me by Your unearned grace. You are ON me, IN me, WITH me and FOR me. You are more dedicated to me than I am to myself. For that Father, I am thankful. I enter every day with a spring in my step, a song in my spirit, and a smile on my face, because I am thankful! Every day is a day of Thanksgiving for me! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
