Making the Most of Thanksgiving

I was at the mall yesterday with some friends. There’s no doubt that Christmas preparations are in full swing!  Lights, trees, ornaments, and gift suggestions are at every entrance, doorway and shelf!  I have to admit that I’m really jumping into the Christmas excitement earlier than normal, but I’m making a decisive choice to stop today and just BE THANKFUL.

I’m making a list, too, but it’s not my Christmas list – it’s my thankfulness list.  I’m enumerating my blessings, one by one in my journal.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

Give thanks, when?

Always

For what?

All things

Every good gift comes from above – from God, and He will receive my thanks!

It would be easy to utter a simple prayer on Thanksgiving day and perhaps feel it was enough, but when I think about how MUCH my God has done, how much He has blessed, how much He has forgiven, and even the trials He’s brought me through, I am making a choice to name those blessings; to count them, one by one.

• Doing this will make that list to be fresh on my mind when I enter our Pie and Praise service at church tonight.
• I will be quick to recite my blessings on Thanksgiving day when we share our blessings with my family.
• Making a list will make me full of praise to my God for all He has done.

When you write out your list, or record it on your phone, or type it up on your computer, you get past being thankful for family and friends, which are indeed things we can be thankful for.  But what about the way God has answered prayer for us?  What about how He moved in our lives and taught us His Word, convicted us of sin, or brought a person to the point of salvation, and delivered us in our trials?  Those blessings take some time to consider and remember.  As I pray, I will ask the Lord to bring to my mind specific things that I can add to my list.  I think it will be helpful to flip through my prayer journal and recount the things I’ve recorded there.

Can I encourage you to make your thankfulness list this week and go deeper than the surface things?  Thanksgiving is a really special day and goes far beyond the food.  It’s about really, truly giving thanks to our great God.

So before we jump headlong into our Christmas plans, decorations and activities, let’s stop to really consider all that we have to be thankful for, and acknowledge the One to Whom we must give thanks.

Count it out…one by one and it will be an unforgettable Thanksgiving.