Church Directory

Always Thankful

Charles Mallory, Associate Pastor, Motley Free Methodist Church

It has already been a week since Thanksgiving and I’m sure that we’re already quite busy focusing and preparing for the Christmas season by now. It is exciting and it is a fun time of the year.

However, can we just pause for now? Stop. Think. Realize. Although Thanksgiving is nationally recognized just one day a year, we know that it is a state of being every single day of our lives.

1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” You can give thanks every day and in all things because thanksgiving is a response to the goodness and grace of God. God’s nature does not change just because a particular holiday is over.

When we give thanks, it aligns us with God’s goodness, opens us up to receive more from Him, and frees us from anxiety and worry. It carries us through any struggle and hardship in life.

If we’re honest, thankfulness helps cure us of ungratefulness and keeps us from becoming cynical about everything. That is why giving thanks can bring us encouragement and strength no matter how crazy the world may become.

Thanksgiving in the Bible means to respond to God’s goodness and grace with gratitude. The word for giving thanks in the Old Testament means to “raise hands to God” in gratitude. In the New Testament, the word for thanks means to be “thankful for God’s grace.” No wonder we call it “saying grace” when we pray a prayer of thanks before eating our meal.

Being thankful for everything, every day, is based on God’s goodness towards humanity and involves responding to Him with our whole being. When you give thanks, you’re responding to God’s goodness and graciousness. We can do this every day.