Good day to all my wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord and also to those who may be reading this and not yet know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I pray that something you may read in this blog today will touch your heart and cause you to want to know the One who can wash away your sins and bring real peace into your heart 🙂 Romans 10:9-10

My wife and I were shopping in one of the retail stores in our city on the day after Halloween when we both suddenly noticed the music that was being played over the store sound system: Christmas music!!! Now I admit that I am getting old and my memory isn’t what it used to be but if my memory serves me right, I believe there is another holiday that falls right between Halloween and Christmas; Thanksgiving.

I totally understand that our nation is curently suffering through the worst economic times we’ve seen since the Great Depression and everyone is trying to make all the sales they can, but I think we may be getting things out-of-order here.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.” Paul also writes in Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

There are so many other verses in the Bible I could give you on this topic but you get the picture; we are called to be thankful. My wife was so taken back when she heard Christmas music playing that she walked up to a store clerk and joked with them about why the rush. The store clerk agreed that it was way too early to be playing Christmas music, but they said it was all about getting as many sales as they could so they could try to make some profit this year.

Paul writes in Colossians 2:7  that we are to be overflowing with thankfulness. We can understand the world trying to get each and every sale they can during the holiday season and not being thankful for what they already have; but I worry that maybe that same mindset has slipped into the people of God.

Are we truly overflowing with thankfulness to the point that others see that in us? Do we have grateful hearts? These are questions we need to ask ourselves and be brutally honest in our answers.

Francis Chan in his book Crazy Love writes: “Are we in love with God or His stuff? Do we love God who is everything, or do we just love everything He gives us?”

I agree that we are in some very difficult times and there are many good Christian brothers and sisters who are hurting right now. Yet even in spite of that, those of us in America are doing far better than most of our brothers and sisters who are living in third world countries. So in saying that, when was the last time you or I spent some quality time thanking the Lord just for Who He is?

David declared in the midst of being pursued by enemies in Psalm 63: 3-4 “Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You, I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your Name I will lift up my hands.”

Though we may not know what our future holds, we can be sure of Who holds our future and just because of that one truth we must have grateful hearts.

Though the world may be in a hurry for us to purchase those many Christmas gifts, we have to be careful that we the body of Christ are not  in such a hurry to get a present that we miss the greatest present ever offered to mankind; the love and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Spend some time today and everyday thanking the Lord for who He is; not for what He can give you. The benefit of doing that will far outweigh anything we may be going through today and we will be blessed. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving this year 🙂