Cultivating a Heart of Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I must admit that as a child I kind of glossed over Thanksgiving in anticipation of Christmas. I never really liked turkey as a child which may also have contributed to my blasé feeling toward it. But as an adult, it is by far my favorite holiday. I love getting together with my family (I am one of seven children) and eating all the delicious food and watching football. Of course, the Patriots are playing as well this year which makes it even more special.

In contemplating Thanksgiving and God’s command for us to be thankful in all things (Ephesians 5:20), I am reminded of God’s most important gift to all of us who know Him as our Savior – Himself. For you see, God could have given us temporal riches to enjoy in this world but He has always had in view our number one need – redemption. John Piper once said that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” And this really is the key to the abundant life that Jesus promised would be ours in Him. So often in today’s world where gain is mistakenly for godliness as Paul said it would be (1 Timothy 6), we look toward temporal blessings as an indication of God’s favor and miss the fact that Jesus reminded us often that life does not consist in the abundance of things but IN Him alone (Luke 12:13-21).

Nancy Leigh DeMoss has written a wonderful book called Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy, which I highly recommend reading as it has helped me to think about the importance of gratitude in my walk. She states that gratitude is a choice and if we fail to chose it, by default we choose ingratitude. And when we do choose a lifestyle of heartfelt, humble gratitude, we are mindful of the benefits received from our gracious Savior and those He has placed around us. By intentionally thanking God and others, bitterness and entitlement are replaced with joy and the humble realization of just how undeserving we really are.

DeMoss also challenges us to give thanks not only to God but to other people. She deftly points out that the Apostle Paul thanks people in all but four of his epistles. She also includes a 30-day devotional guide to help readers practically implement gratitude into their daily walk.

I hope this Thanksgiving you will take some time to think about gratitude beyond just the one day that it is celebrated in this country and look toward developing a heart attitude of thanksgiving throughout the year. I am currently on this journey, which I must confess has not been easy at times, especially when I am hurt by others or suffer injustices, but it is at these times that God is urging me to be most thankful. I realize this seems like a paradox, but much of Christianity is the polar opposite of human reasoning because humanism at its core leads us away from God and from the precepts of His kingdom which bring true joy and contentment. I think one of the keys to living victoriously in this area is to never forget your own salvation. It is at the cross that we find all we truly need to be thankful for, and with that perspective, anything we suffer in this life can be counted as all joy.

I hope everyone has a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” - Edward Sandford Martin

Mount Sinai or Mount Calvary?

In 1 John 1:9 we read the following statement in regards to how a Christian is to deal with sin in their lives, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I have come to realize over the years that the times in my life when I feel the most distant from the Lord or my prayers seem like they are rising no higher than my ceiling, are the very moments when I have unconfessed sin. This may seem rudimentary, but for a long time in my Christian walk I used to try to fill my life during “spiritual dry times” with more spiritual things or activities in an attempt to feel closer to God when in reality I needed to confess and repent of sin.

It is the sin battle that so often defeats us in our walk but John gives us the solution – just confess. Seems simple on the surface, doesn’t it? I have found that to practically live this verse is the most challenging aspect of my Christian life.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss in her profound book on revival called Seeking Him says that when we sin we immediately have two choices. We can go to Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments and try to live by the law in our own strength and self-righteousness or we can come to Mount Calvary and bring our sin to the foot of the cross and receive the forgiveness and victory over sin that is ours in Christ.

The Bible tells us that after Jesus rose from the grave He went and sat down at the right hand of the Father and is there today making intercession for us when we confess our sins (Romans 8:27). This is an amazing thought to comprehend. Jesus Christ is actively working on our behalf to apply his blood atonement sacrifice to our sins. All we have to do is confess them and repent or turn from our sinful behavior. Jesus Himself has already bore the penalty and the judgment for our sins. What a wonderful spiritual reality to contemplate and allow to shape our walk!

I heard a preacher once say that the key to a victorious Christian life is to keep short sin accounts with God. In other words, when we sin is the best time to confess our sin. I think the frustrating part is so often as soon as we confess the sin, we are committing it again. But still the scripture urges us to keep confessing because I believe the very act of coming before God and agreeing with Him that we have trespassed against His law is the only way we can achieve victory even if it takes time for the sin to be completely removed from our lives. This is why the confession part is the most critical.

When David sinned with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel chapter 11, and then basically ordered to have her husband killed in the war by putting him on the front lines, he never confessed these sins before God. In fact, if not for the prophet Nathan coming to tell David that God was extremely upset over his sin, there is no reason to believe David would have ever confessed. This is a sobering thought given the scriptures tell us that David was a man who was after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). This is a prime example of the deadliness of unconfessed sin.

We have to always be on guard in our lives to ensure we are not deceived about sin and the best way to do this - the only way to do this - is to confess our sins daily before the Lord.

“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.” - George MacDonald