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Ten reasons to Thank OUR LORD! by WOODROWkroll.

Everyday should be a Thanksgiving Day for believers. Thanksgiving is good any day. It's good for the soul.

1.Thanksgiving is more meaningful when it is voluntary, when you give thanksgiving of your own free will as Leviticus 22:29 says. That's when thanksgiving is the most meaningful to you. Don't let people drag thanksgiving out of you and don't let God drag it out of you. Be a thankful person. You'll be better off..

2.Thanksgiving involves praise and worship to God. King Hezekiah and the leaders of the Levites were to sing praise to the Lord with the words of David and with Asaph the seer. And this is what it says, 2 Chronicles 29:30, "So they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.".

See, thanksgiving is a way for you to praise and worship God. You don't have to just sing to do that. You can simply be thankful.
3.Thanksgiving is an offering to God. Psalm 116:17 says, I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving.When you have something to offer God, He will receive it if you have clean hands and a pure heart. Thanksgiving is not some off the cuff remark we make. Not something we observe only when there's a turkey in front of us . .

Thanksgiving is not a day, friends. It is a sacrifice. It is an offering to God that thankful people make to the one that gives them what they need..

4. Thanksgiving reflects well on the person of God. You can magnify the name of God with your thanksgiving--Psalm 69:30, "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.".

5. Thanksgiving is about God, not what we get from God. You know, too often when we are thankful we just simply say, "This is what I'm thankful for, and I'm grateful that God sent it to me." But the center of our thanksgiving ought not to be the things we get, friends. It ought to be the God who gives them to us.And we can thank God, We can thank God for things other than the stuff that He provides for our life.

6 .Thanksgiving should be open and unashamed. You know, thanksgiving is not something you do holed up in your room. Not something you do in your prayer at night to God.

It's something you do in the presence of others so that you can express your thanksgiving to God. I just think about this. At the Last Supper, Matthew 26:27, Jesus "took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you.'" He took the cup. He gave thanks in the presence of everyone else.

At the feeding of the 5,000--John 6:11, "And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples." See, thanksgiving is open. It's unashamed. It's not something we sneak around and do because we are afraid we'll offend someone. Thanksgiving is an uninterrupted, unashamed, open response to God.

Remember the account in Acts chapter 27 when Paul was shipwrecked on Malta? Verse 35 says, "And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat." If you want thanksgiving to be meaningful this year, don't do it in private. Do it in public. Make sure that everybody understands that it's God that you are thanking and that you are not ashamed to thank God for what He's done for you.

7. Thanksgiving should be general. You know, it's good for you to give thanks in general to God--1 Corinthians 15:57, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That's kind of a general expression.

Sure, that victory comes because of the promises of God. That victory comes because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. In fact, we are going to talk about that victory tomorrow. But that's a general statement.

Ephesians 5:20, "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, that's about as general as you can get. Giving thanks always for all things. you can be very general in the way you thank God, but it's a noble expression for you to do so. First Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything," Paul says, "give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

See, thanksgiving is an attitude of life. And if you want to make your thanksgiving helpful to you, make thanksgiving general. Find all the things in life for which you can be thankful to the Lord God, and just be grateful to Him in general for the things that occur in your life. Even the things that bring pain and suffering to you. Because sometimes it's through the pain and suffering that God speaks to us most clearly.

8.Thanksgiving should be specific. See, there are two sides to this coin. God wants us to be thankful people. Thankful in general. Thankful for all things. .

This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. But when God does something for you, when God shows Himself strong for you, when God proves his character in your life, those specific instances are cause for thanksgiving. You need to be specific in your thanksgiving to God.
9. Thanksgiving can be a tool of testimony. See, it's entirely possible for you and me to give testimony to others by our thanksgiving to God..

Second Samuel 22:50, "I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name." Now, listen, folks. There may be people at your table today or maybe you'll just enjoy them tomorrow or over the weekend and you are going to have the opportunity to give thanks to God in their presence. That can become for you a tool of testimony..

First Chronicles 16:8 says the same thing, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!" Not just among your family but among the peoples. See, you encounter people all the time who have nobody to thank. Oh, sure, they have people to thank; they have God to thank. They just don't see that. They don't see a God who gives good things to them..

10.Thanksgiving is timely. It is dated. It is best offered on or before November 27, 2003.friends, thanksgiving is something that cannot wait..

Psalm 6:5, "For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks?" You know, you are not going to live forever, my friend. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going." Thanksgiving is timely. It is dated. It is best offered on or before today..

Don't wait until tomorrow to be thankful because you don't know what tomorrow brings. Your best opportunity to be thankful to the Lord is right now.

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