The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
Thanksgiving 2020
Part 5 - Truth and Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving always begins with awareness. We realize someone has done something for us or given us something, resulting in our desire to express gratitude. This especially applies to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and His immeasurably abundant bestowal of "life, breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25).
"Both riches and honor come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name" (I Chronicles 29:12-13).
The more we know God's giving, the more we express our thanksgiving. His generosity and our dependence are both so vast that we sometimes forget how much He gives, and how much we receive. Moreover, even devout believers require ongoing growth in properly answering the question, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (I Corinthians 4:7). Because God made us as active beings who properly exert physical and mental energy in order to function, and because we live in a fallen world of thorns that makes this difficult, we can forget that regardless of how much we sweat in our labors, God ultimately serves as our supply for "all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Genesis 3:19; Philippians 4:19). Thus, at the end of our hardest and most exhausting day, truth demands that we realize God's giving, and how appropriate is our thanksgiving.
When deficient in gratitude, we can be sure of our need for remembrance and growth in truth. We have nothing we have not received because our hardest work requires the strength God gives to perform it. Thus, we are a race of beings continually indebted to our Creator and Sustainer, and to whom our offering of thanks provides the only sane and appropriate response. Yes, truth leads to thanksgiving.
"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High."
(Psalm 50:14)
Weekly Memory Verse
In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
(I Thessalonians 5:18)
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