CULTIVATE THANKSGIVING

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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Today is the day before Thanksgiving and I wanted to take a short pause from our study of Titus to honor the holiday and help us all prepare. In praying over this, the Spirit has led me to this special message, Cultivate Thanksgiving.

The idea here is that in order to live with a pervasive attitude of gratitude in life, we need to be intentional about creating the right personal, spiritual environment to abide in. We have to cultivate the soil of our soul so to reap a harvest of thanks unto our Lord. Here are six actions we can take which can help us to that end.

1. Count your blessings.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5

There’s a saying I have always held onto. It goes like this:

Count your blessings and when you finish, start counting over again.

Indeed, we should never take for granted all that the Lord has provided and done for us. As David exhorts in the 103rd Psalm, we should “forget not all His benefits” before he goes on to specifically name a few. He encourages his readers to remember that the Lord is the One who:

1. Forgives all sin.

2. Heals all diseases.

3. Redeems lives from the pit.

4. Crowns believers with love and compassion.

5. Satisfies desires with good things.

6. Renews us and allows us to soar on the wings of eagles (also Isaiah 40:28-31).

All of us could add volumes to this list as we consider how abundantly the Lord has blessed us. From the simplicity of giving us air to breathe and a heart that beats, bringing us health and life, to providing us shelter, clothing, and food to the gift of family and friends to love and be loved by. There are plenty of blessings to count for sure and when we do so regularly, we cultivate thanksgiving in our heart and mind.

2. Acknowledge the Lord’s goodness and love.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind. Psalm 107:21

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 118:1, 1 Chronicles 16:34

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 4:4

Over and over again, the scriptures declare and proclaim the goodness of the Lord, calling on believers to give thanks for “His unfailing love” that “endures forever” and “His wonderful deeds for mankind”. This Lord of goodness is always working things for the good of those who love Him back, those who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) so let us cultivate a constant response of thanks for all the Lord has done, all He is doing, and all He is still yet to do.

3. Worship and sing songs of praise.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7:17

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. Psalm 95:2

If you’re like me, you love Christian music. Whether listening to it when I am driving, at home, in worship at church, or even when I embark on the walks I enjoy going on, the songs of praise to the Lord always lift up my spirit and cultivate an overflowing feeling of thanksgiving in my soul. And this feeling in my soul wells up from within into an outflow of gratitude as I raise my own voice to sing along, extolling and glorifying the Lord in “music and song”.

Every day, I post a Christian song of the day for this express reason and I pray it is a blessing to you, a chance to lift your own voice in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord through which all things are possible.   

4. Pray with a spirit of gratitude.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18a

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Friends, the best wireless communication means we have is prayer, our chance to personally connect with the Lord of all creation whenever we want to. When we call on Him, there isn’t some call center where we have to first be on hold and then talk to some prayer customer service agent first. No, from the moment we turn to the Lord in prayer, He is ready to listen to us and help us discern His will in any and all circumstances. Nothing is too difficult or complex for Him to figure out and we can always trust His wisdom and guidance.

Because of this, we should easily be able to “rejoice always” and refuse to be “anxious about anything”, instead praying “continually” while allowing thanksgiving to cultivate within as we present our “requests to God”.

In the end translation, no one is there for you like the Lord is and no one else possesses the power He has to take care of any problem we might be facing. All we need to do is trust Him and give Him thanks for all He is, all He’s been, and all He is still to be in our life.

5. Be generous to others.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:11

As Christians, we should hopefully come to understand right away that Jesus calls us to a life of self sacrifice, not self service. His own life was defined by His constant willingness to place the needs of other before His own and He did so all the way to Calvary’s cross.

Each day, we have the chance to be generous to others, to share the great enrichment we have received from the Lord with them. There is never a bad occasion to extend generosity to others and the scriptures tell us that generosity cultivates and generates “thanksgiving to God”.

Jesus called us to care for those that society might view as “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-40) and when we do, we reflect His compassion, caring, and giving, allowing others to see His light through what we do so to raise up their praise and thanksgiving unto Him.

6. Respond to God’s will.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Ultimately, it is God’s will for us to be thankful always. The scriptures tell us so and that should always be enough. All we need to do is respond in obedience while exercising the first five methods to allow thanksgiving to cultivate in our lives.

I pray you’ll do just that today as we prepare our hearts for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.