Abundant Thankfulness

On Facebook, I've noticed that the month of November has some people posting things that they are thankful for each day.  Most people are thankful for family and friends.  And, don't get me wrong, I am thankful for mine too!  But sometimes I feel bad when that's all that people have to be thankful for.  Those answers seem so shallow, so dull.  If you're a lover of Jesus Christ, you've tasted the richness of God's abundant love through His grace and, in light of that, all other things seem so dim.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

Of course we shouldn't treat our families or friends with hate; we should love them intensely - we should just be more in love with Christ.  Thanksgiving, for the Christian, is a time for being overjoyed with thankfulness to the LORD for his mercies and abundant blessings (such as family and friends) He's given us.

Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss takes this one step further: we should be overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness to the LORD each and every day - not just during November.  Why?  Because of all that Christ has done for us in His death and resurrection.

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8

 

Christ's life has become ours!    That news makes me want to shout, to dance, to sing for joy - the joy and gratitude for the Christian is limitless:

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.  Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep."

Psalm 36:5-6

Our gratitude doesn't have to stop at "family and friends!"  It overflows because of God's goodness and mercy to us through Christ.

Lastly, I want to share with you the quote from Nancy that got me thinking about all this in the first place!

"So while we can commend the practice of generalized gratitude, being glad to have friends and family members with a positive outlook on life, we cannot as believers be content to consider it sufficient for ourselves - not when there's a level of gratitude that offers us so much more than merely feeling good about how things are going," (p. 37).