Thanksgiving Calls For Thanks-living

“Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people" (Chr. 16:8).
“Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness" (Ps. 30:4).
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his holy name" (Ps. 100:4).
“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ep. 5:20).

The Lord God who is seated upon the throne of all the universe commands His people to be thankful. Thankfulness doesn’t mean that we are laughing and giggling like some twit. You can be thankful with tears of sorrow coursing down your cheeks. You can be thankful in the midst of disappointment. You can be thankful in the face of personal crisis. When you are thankful you are in the will of God; when you are unthankful you are out of the will of God. 1 Thess 5:18 tells us, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Don’t tell me you can’t be thankful because God has said you can. Our Father never gives a command that he doesn’t also give the ability to carry it out. The story is told of John Gray, a preacher who never failed to thank God, no matter how bad things got. One Sunday he battled through wind and sleet to preach at a little village. The congregation was small. The people wonder what the preacher would could find to be thankful for. When it came time to pray, the preacher lifted his eyes toward heaven and said, “This is a wretched day, dear Lord, no doubt about it; but we thank Thee, Lord, that ever day isn’t as bad as this one!”


We are never more like Christ than when we are giving thanks to God, and we are never more like the lost world than when we are unthankful. Thankfulness rises from an obedient heart, while unthankfulness rises from a disobedient heart. The word “thank” in the Bible comes from the word eucharisteo (this is the word from which we get eucharist). The root word is charis. This is the word for "grace." Grace means we get something that we do not earn or deserve. We’ve heard people at the supper table asking someone to say grace. This is Scriptural. When you say thank you to God, you are saying I don’t deserve what I’m getting; you are saying thank you.

There was a man named Thomas at the second church I pastored in the 1990s. He was dying of Emphysema. He contracted the disease as a result of chemicals he was exposed to at his work site as a young man. He died a slow death by suffocation. I preached his funeral. At Thomas’ request they sang the Chris Kristofferson song “Why Me Lord.”

Why me Lord?
What have I ever done
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I’ve known?
Tell me, Lord, what did I ever do
That was worth lovin’ you
Or the kindness you’ve shown?

He lived in such agony and struggled for every breath, yet he truly experienced eucharisteo. His last testimony stuck with me through all these many years. I cannot remember for-the-life-of-me what text I read or what I said, but I remember the hymn of thankfulness that Thomas requested.

We should give thanks personally. The best way to show our thankfulness is “Thanks-living”. Terry W. York said it so well in his poem that has found its way into our hymnal.

Our life and its sustaining breath
And life that’s promised after death
Come from God our heavenly Father.
He gives us freedom from our fears;
Food, friends, and purpose thro’ the years.
All the words of our Thanksgiving fail to say what we can show by our Thanks-living.

A life of living thankfulness
Moves lifeless words to willingness;
Willingness to serve our Father.
That service, born of love, demands
Our hearts, our minds, our strength, our hands.
All the words of our Thanksgiving fail to say what we can show by our Thanks-living.

Our deepest love and highest praise
In both routine and festive days,
Sing of You, our heavenly Father.
Yet while our songs of praise arise
Deep in our hearts we realize
All the words of our Thanksgiving fail to say what we can show by our Thanks-living.