Gratitude is Humility is Happiness

“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His Love endures forever.” (Psalm 118:1)

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

The Time of Comfort, Joy and Thanksgiving

For the LORD will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

(Isaiah 51:3)

“Waste places” refers to what has been laid to ruin. What once was abundance has now become desolate, a waste land. This is what happened in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, when man rebelled against God. Adam unplugged from the life of God, and in so doing, brought the world into a state of ruin. Likewise, Israel, by her idolatry and spiritual adultery, defiled the land and brought ruin upon it.

“Wilderness” refers to that which is untamed. Barren desert land that has not been cultivated. In the beginning, the Garden of Eden was only a small portion of the earth. God’s plan was for man to extend the boundaries and make all the world a garden of “pleasure” (the Hebrew word “eden” means “pleasure”). God’s plan for Israel was that they would bring His salvation and redemption into all the earth. He said to them, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The function of priests is to intercede. As a kingdom of priests, Israel was to be a mediator between God and all the nations of the world, to extend the boundaries of His blessing everywhere. But again, like Adam and Eve, Israel failed because of her rebellion against God.

However, God did not cease from His plan. He promised that there would be a comfort, a consolation for Israel and all her waste places. It was a promise not only of restoration but also of fulfillment. God would once again bring Israel into her destiny. The Garden of Eden would once again be established — and enlarged to include all the nations.

Listen to Me, My people;
And give ear to Me, O My nation:
For law will proceed from Me,
And I will make My justice rest
As a light of the peoples.
My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And on My arm they will trust.

(Isaiah 51:4)

God would bring His light and justice to the peoples, the nations. Even the far off lands would look to Him in patient expectation, and they would trust in Him.

This is the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of God that brings light and life into the world. It is the righteousness of God revealed, the justice that sets things right. It is the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven — heaven and earth becoming one. It finds its completion in Jesus the Messiah King, who fulfills the purpose of Israel and brings the light of God to the nations. Even in infancy, when Jesus was presented in the Temple for dedication, Simeon saw this and gave thanks to God:

Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation
Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles [the nations],
And the glory of Your people Israel.

(Luke 2:29-32)

As Isaiah observed so many years ago, it is a cause of comfort and joy, gladness and thanksgiving. What God has started out to do in the beginning, He is now in the process of bringing through to completion in the reign of King Jesus.

It is more than appropriate that the season of Thanksgiving leads us into the season of Advent and Christmas, pointing us toward the source of true comfort and joy.

How to Give Thanks in Everything

In everything give thanks. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

The Bible tells us to give thanks in everything. It is easy enough to give thanks when times are good and things are going well, although we often neglect to do so. But how are we supposed to give thanks when times are hard and nothing seems to be going right?

First, notice that we are to give thanks in everything, not necessarily for everything. Bad things happen; we do not have to give thanks for them, but we can give thanks in the midst of them, knowing that God is in still on His throne, and that He is much greater than any problem that could ever come our way. Giving thanks to God is a very effective way to begin relating to His solution instead of focusing on the problem. Paul expands on this in his letter to the Philippians:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Bad things happen, but we do not have to be full of worry and anxiety about them. We can go to God in prayer. To some, that may seem to be nothing more than acquiescing to or retreating from the problem. But it is actually addressing the problem head on by taking it to God, the One who can do something about it.

Supplication is prayer that presents a definite need to be met by a definite provision. Problems require solutions; supplication goes after the solution. Make your requests known to God. Don’t be vague; ask with specificity for whatever is needed. Wrap it all up in thanksgiving, knowing that God hears, that He cares and that He will answer you and take care of the situation.

Paul adds this, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). When you give thanks in everything, you will not be anxious, but filled with the peace of God.

Give thanks to God in everything, even the bad things, for your prayers and thanksgiving will bring the power, provision and peace of God to bear. When the solution appears, you will be thanking Him for the opportunity of seeing His glory displayed on your behalf.

Remembering—the Essence of Thanksgiving

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And forget not all His benefits.

(Psalm 103:2)

Giving thanks is about remembering. One of the problems for the children of Israel in the wilderness is that, though God brought them ought of Egypt by His mighty hand — “He brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes” (Psalm 105:37) — they forgot. That is why an eleven day journey through the wilderness turned into forty years! Psalm 106 recounts the story of their forgetfulness and all the terrible things it brought them into:

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders.
They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies,
But rebelled by the sea — the Red Sea.

(Psalm 106:7)

They soon forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel.
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
And tested God in the desert.
And He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their soul.

(Psalm 106:13-15)

They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
Awesome things by the Red Sea.

(Psalm 106:21-22)

Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe His Word,
But complained in their tents,
And did not heed the voice of LORD.

(Psalm 106:24-25)

The joined themselves also to Baal of Peor,
And ate sacrifices made to the dead.
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And the plague broke out among them.

(Psalm 106:28-29)

They mingled with the Gentiles
And learned their works;
They served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
They even sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons.
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and daughters,
Whom the sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with blood.
Thus they were defiled by their own works,
And played the harlot by their own deeds.

(Psalm 106:35-39)

Forgetfulness is a lack of faith. When we forget, be become disconnected from the all the blessing God has for us. But it is not God who disconnects us. We do that to ourselves by failing to remember and trust in His goodness.

Even in the midst of our forgetfulness, notice the extent of God’s goodness:

Nevertheless He regarded their affliction,
When He heard their cry;
And for their sake He remembered His covenant,
And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.
He also made them to be pitied
By all those who carried them away captive.

(Psalm 106:44-46)

We may forget, but God still remembers and reveals His mercy, even in the bad situation our forgetfulness has brought us.

How much more, then, will we enjoy the blessing and benefits of God when we remember to acknowledge and trust in His goodness — in a word, to be thankful! David offers the short list of those benefits:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns [surrounds] you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth [desires] with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103:2-5)

Thanksgiving is about remembering. God has provided so many wonderful blessings and benefits for you and me, let us not forget a single one of them, but lay hold of them all by faith and thanksgiving, trusting completely in the goodness of God.

(See also Six Things the Devil Wants You to Forget, But God Wants You to Remember)

Thanksgiving — Entering Into His Gates

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God.
It is He who made us, and now we ourselves.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

(Psalm 100)

Here is an invitation to the nations — to all peoples, tribes and tongues — and to you. Come and be filled with joy. Hoot and holler and celebrate with singing. Enjoy the LORD — He is for you, not against you.

Enter into a personal relationship with Him and experience the knowledge that He is God. He is revealing Himself in covenant with all who will come to Him.

Come and know your Creator — He is Yahweh (the Hebrew name behind the word “LORD,” all caps), and He is our Maker. We come from Him. Not only that, He is our shepherd, and will take care of us forever.

So how do you enter in? By thanksgiving and praise, being thankful to Him and blessing His name. In other words, it is by faith, coming in complete dependence upon Him, recognizing that He is the source of every good thing, and blessing His name.

What is His name? He has revealed Himself as Messiah (Isaiah 53) and His name is Yeshua (literally, “Yahweh Saves”). He is the Word John talked about, by whom all things were made (John 1:1-3). He is the Good Shepherd, who gives His life for His sheep (John 10). In English, we call His name Jesus.

Joy and celebration in the courts of God belong to all who come with thanksgiving and praise, trusting Him for everything and blessing His name — Jesus.

(See also Invitation of Joy to the Nations)

The Expression of Joy Godward

You have filled my heart with greater joy
Than when their grain and new wine abound.

(Psalm 4:7 NIV)

Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.

(Psalm 126:5)

The song of joy is inherently the song of thanksgiving. W. E. Vine defines thanksgiving as the expression of joy Godward (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words).

Joy is the anticipation and celebration of harvest. The prophet Joel foretold a time of harvest joy for the people of God:

The LORD will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.” … Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice [shout for joy] in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. (Joel 2:19, 23-24)

This speaks of the time of Messiah, who releases Pentecost. Pentecost was the harvest festival of Israel, a time of returning thanks to the LORD and celebrating His goodness. The Pentecost of God, prefigured by all other Pentecosts, was the promise of the Holy Spirit being given by the Father to His people.

Before Jesus ascended to His heavenly throne, He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for this promise to be fulfilled: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This happened ten days later — fifty days after the Passover, when Jesus was offered for the sins of the world. (The word “Pentecost” means “fiftieth.”)

Because Jesus came at Christmas, and went on to Calvary, we can now live in the great harvest celebration of God. It is the time of feasting on the Living Bread — Jesus, of drinking deeply of the new wine of His Spirit, and of living powerfully in the oil of His anointing. Sing the new song and release the expression of joy Godward.

Ministering Out of the Overflow of God's Abundance

Our God is a God of abundance. More than enough. His paths drip abundance. David said, “My cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5). Running over. Overflow.

Someone has said that Egypt was a land of “not enough,” the wilderness was a land of “just enough,” but the Promised Land was a land of “more than enough.” It was a land flowing (overflowing) with milk and honey.

Another psalm writer gave this musical notation: “Both the singers and the players on instruments say, ‘All my springs are in you.’” (Psalm 87:7). The “you” refers either to the Lord Himself, of else to His holy city, Zion. Either way, it refers to abundance that comes from God. For what is a spring if not an overflow?

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Overflow.

Paul understood the overflow of God as the abundance of His grace. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). This is the abundance of God so that we may also have abundance.

This is not just spiritual abundance, as if the spiritual could be separated from the natural. This is spiritual abundance that flows forth into the natural. In fact, in the context of 2 Corinthians 9, this verse moves from the general truth of God’s abundance in our lives to the particular abundance of God in our finances — a.k.a. money.

Yes, God’s abundance is as much about our money as about anything else in our lives. God wants to bless us with an abundance of it — more than enough — so that we can overflow with financial blessing into the lives of others. He wants to give us more than enough so we can have abundance for every good work.

This has always been God’s way. In the covenant document of Israel, the Book of Deuteronomy, God says, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant” (Deuteronomy 8:17). The power to get wealth comes from God so that He may establish His covenant on the earth. It is a covenant of blessing.

Psalm 112 talks about the blessing on the righteous, those who fear the LORD and delight greatly in His commandments. “Wealth and riches will be in his house” (v. 3). Why? Because he is “gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man deals graciously and lends” (vv. 4-5). God blesses the righteous with wealth so that they can overflow with blessing toward others.

Some Christians have a very stingy spirit. “I don’t need much, just enough to get by,” they say, imagining themselves to be very pious and humble. But in fact, they are grudging and miserly. They are withholding the blessing with which God wants them to bless others. They are stopping the abundance of God in their lives. They have no overflow, consequently they have no flow either. They become stagnant pools — a blessing to no one.

In the season of Thanksgiving, ought we not to give thanks for the bounty of the Lord by letting it flow through us to others? Ought we not to sow bountifully, so that we may reap bountifully, so that we may sow even more bountifully, and thus multiply blessing to many. We will not come up short if we do. Rather, we will experience the current of God’s compassion, the flow of His love into the lives of others. We will be ministering to others out of the overflow of His passion and power at work in us. Its all good.

The Declaration of Wondrous Works

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!
For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.” (Psalm 75:1)

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, it seems quite appropriate to stop and consider the wondrous works of the Lord. The Bible has much to say about signs and wonders. The early Church cried out to God for boldness, and that He would grant signs and wonders in the name of His “holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

The nature of signs is that they direct our attention. The nature of wonders is that they cause us to stand in awe. In the Bible, signs and wonders point us to the same thing — the name of the LORD.

Names are very important. They reveal the nature and character of the one who is named. The Hebrew name for Jesus is yeshua, the word for “salvation.” It includes deliverance, healing, restoration, even prosperity. In other words, however you need to be saved, it can be found in the name of Jesus. When we know the name of Jesus, we are then in a position to receive who He is and what is contained in His name.

Names are very powerful. They carry authority. Jesus taught us, when we pray, to ask the Father in Jesus’ name. This is not about some little formality we go through, tacking “In Jesus’ name” on at the end of our prayers. That would be treating the name of Jesus as a matter of magic, not of faith.

Praying in Jesus’ name is a matter of authority, the authority of Jesus. When we pray in His name, which means to ask as He would ask, it is just as if Jesus Himself is praying to the Father. Jesus promised that such prayers will be answered, for the Father will not deny the Son.

Back to signs and wonders, then. Signs and wonders direct our attention to the name of the Lord. What is more, they reveal that He is present, for where His name is, there He is also. Signs and wonders show that He is close enough to touch, if we would simply reach out in faith, for the Bible says, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

No wonder the early Christians called for signs and wonders, not to be satiated with the sensational, but that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ be exalted, and that many would turn to Him and be saved.

We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks to You.
For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near. Amen.