1 Peter 2:10 - Thanksgiving

“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

As we move toward Thanksgiving, we think of what we are thankful for. At the moment, I am thankful that I can end a sentence with a preposition without repercussions.

At the typical Thanksgiving I am extremely thankful for turkey, corn casserole, football, and all the yummy desserts. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wish I gave more thought to more significant matters, like being thankful that I have food to eat, family and friends to eat it with, and a warm home to hold us all. I should be thankful for those gifts because not everyone in this world has such blessings. But I seldom thank God for such gifts – my sense of entitlement is one of my least favorite things about myself.

Seriously, as I look at my life, I should be on my knees every moment thanking God for His wonderful gifts.

- I have a beautiful wife, a fun little boy with another child on the way, wonderful family and friends, and meaningful work to do.
- I’m strong and healthy, relatively intelligent, and able to do most things I attempt without much difficulty.
- My brain works like it should, my lungs breath oxygen, my heart pumps blood, and all my senses are fully functioning.
- I was born in a free country, to a family that had the resources to provide an excellent education, and have lived most of my years in times of peace.

I could go on and on…and on…and on and on. I should be the most thankful person in the world!

But I’m not. Why is that? I’ve been thinking about it and I believe my main problem is I simply don’t think about the good things I have been given. I take them for granted – I feel like I deserve the things I have…so I believe that I deserve the things the things I want… so I ignore the things I have in favor of the things I don’t have. That, my friends, is called discontent, and I believe lack of content is an epidemic among Christians. Our culture only makes it worse – our economy is built upon breeding discontent so we will buy more and more things. Do you struggle with this, or am I the only one?

So what is the solution? I believe that thankfulness is the cure for discontent. If you are grateful for the things you have, you are more likely to be happy and at peace with your life. If you are thankful for the gifts you have been given, you won’t spend so much time looking at the things you don’t have. Focus on what you have – trust me, you have more than 99% of the people in the world – and you won’t have time to look for things you don’t have.

I’ll continue this thought next week, but as you head into your break, I hope that you make the time to think about all of God’s blessings. Put a notebook beside your bed and write down everything you have to be thankful for before you go to sleep each night. As you look over your list, remember where those gifts originate – not from your parents or your cleverness – they are gifts straight from the hand of God.

We are God’s people – we have received God’s mercy – those two things are enough to make every moment of every day a sort of thanksgiving!

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17