A THANKFUL HEART


As you know Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. It kicks off the busiest time of the year for the shopping malls, and it kicks off the busiest time of the year for most of us, too. In the next 4-5 weeks there will be parties to attend, shopping to finish, gifts to wrap, cookies to bake, cantatas and programs to go to, special services at church, visiting relatives, and on and on and on. For most of us, the next several weeks will be the most hectic days of the year. But before the insanity begins, we can look forward to Thanksgiving Day. Though Thanksgiving isn't specifically a religious holiday, it can be spiritually uplifting if you let it. Because a thankful heart opens the door to God's blessings in your life.

We have a tendency to rate our lives on a scale of comparison with others. We compare ourselves with those whose lives appear to be richer, fuller, and more exciting than ours. Many times we feel short changed. We wonder why others have it so much better than we do. Of course, that's distorted thinking. But I want you to realize that having a thankful heart is not about comparing yourself to others, it's about recognizing and acknowledging what God has done in your life. 

As we go through each day, there are literally thousands of things that come across our path to be thankful for. We can thank God for a song we enjoy listening to, a writer we enjoy reading, a restaurant we enjoy eating at, a park we enjoy visiting. We can be thankful for all these things. These are not even the "big stuff", such as your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, your job, and on and on and on. There are thousands of things that you enjoy, that benefit you on a daily basis, and they are all gifts from God. 

Our focus can't be on what we don't have, or who has it better than we do. Our focus must be on all the good things we do have in our lives because every good thing in our life is from God. “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’” (Psalm 16:2) 

David is saying, "Every good thing comes from God, and without God, all these things are meaningless." Acknowledge God as the source of all the good things in your life.

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