Praise and Thanksgiving / Mrs Barb Jackson

Mrs Barb Jackson

Pastor's Wife

Batavia, IA

Praise and Thanksgiving

It is that time of year when we gather with families and friends and dedicate the day to praising God and thanking Him for His blessings.  We eat, reminisce, and enjoy holiday traditions.  We share with one another for which we are thankful: family, food, home, job, and health.  Then, tomorrow comes and we return to life's every day demands.  Does thanksgiving still have the same priority and focus?  Sometimes we “fit it in” among distractions or perhaps get to the end of the day and realize we left God out altogether.  He is worthy to be praised with all of our being.  God provides for our every need and sacrificed His only Son lovingly.  He deserves thanksgiving every day.

When we approach God's throne in prayer, we need to prepare by humbling ourselves and realize His greatness.  We begin by praising Him.  Praise is recognizing God for who He is, which requires some knowledge of Him and his attributes.  It means we need a close personal relationship with His character and actions through repentance and faith. The psalmist of Psalm 113:1-6 says, “Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high. Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!”

How do we view God? Do we have our own ideas of who God is? Do we see Him as THE great God? He has many attributes.  The following are examples: God is immutable (Malachi 3:6), faithful (1 Cor 1:9), incomprehensible (Psalm 145:3), merciful (Psalm 136), kind and loving (Titus 3:4-6), just (1 John 1:9), and infinite (Job 5:8-9).  He created the universe and all is under his feet as a footstool.  I have to admit that I had my own idea of God until I completed an extensive Bible study, “Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically”, by John Snyder.  In my mind's eye, I knew God was big, but in reality I had a small image of Him.  We will never be able to fully comprehend the magnitude of His greatness because of our human limitations.  Because of this, we must be careful not to minimize who He is when we come before His throne in prayer; we must praise Him by acknowledging and appreciating His attributes.  Let's begin our prayers by praising Him for who He is.  God desires our fellowship, but more importantly, He wants and deserves honor and glory.  He likes to hear our praises and be reminded of His greatness.  As His model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 indicates, we need to acknowledge His great power and bring honor and glory to Him in our words and deeds.  

After we praise God, we should offer our thanksgiving, which is gratitude for what God does. How many times has the Lord answered our prayers or provided for us even when we didn't ask?  He may not answer the way we want, but He answers according to His plan for our lives.  He deserves our thankfulness and appreciation for His provisions.  We need to be specific when thanking Him.  When someone says thank you, don't we appreciate a specific thank you versus a generic one?  It is easy to thank Him when everything is going great, but we also need to thank Him for trials.  It is the trials that bring us closer to Him and magnify Him in honor and glory.  God uses trials to mold us and to fulfill His greater plan.  Psalm 118:1 “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.”  1Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  God will answer our prayers according to His perfect will and that fact alone, shows what a great God we have.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!