Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry Buddy, but God said, "Kill and eat" (Acts 10) not "Put together a tossed salad".

Anyone who knows me knows that I talk a lot about being thankful. It's not just something to think about because you're a Christian. Because you're a Christian - it's what you are - a thankful person. Thankfulness may be the single most important element in our walk with God. I know - you're shouting, "What about love?" That truly is the bottom line of our whole journey to God, but I would simply ask, can you learn to love without being thankful? Thankfulness is the foundation of every spiritual quality that we need to grow in. As I've said many times, we can't grow any higher spiritually, than our level of thankfulness. It's the foundation of our relationship with God (and any growing relationship for that matter). Thankfulness toward God means seeing His hand in everything that happens around us and to us. It gives us the sense of His presence that we must have in a relationship of faith. It's the cornerstone of our communication with Him as we thank Him for so much each day. In one sense, thankfulness is communication with God. Who are you thanking if you're thankful for something. Thankfulness is the secret to dealing with life's hardships and problems. Only a thankful life can see the big picture of how much the blessings have over-powered the problems. A thankful life doesn't expect more, demand "why?", or feel like God "owes" them anything. A thankful life treasures every day, enjoys it, lives in peace, and longs to be with the Father for eternity - whether that day comes sooner or later.

Here's that challenge. Most of us think we are thankful people, but we're really not. We are, what I call, situationally thankful and not attitudinally thankful. We appreciate it when good things happen, but we haven't made the decision to see the thousand daily little things that God does that we need to be thankful for. It's a choice. We can start right now to be thankful for everything that's around us, and we will immediately start looking at life, at relationships, and at eternity completely different. Then we will have Thanksgiving 365 days a year.