Riff's Christian Journal

We just celebrated Thanksgiving. It was a time of family get together’s, lots of good food and for giving thanks for all that we have. Giving thanks? Why do we give thanks and to whom is it directed?

Ultimately there is only one Being to whom we give thanks, and that Being is God. Only God has given us all that we need for living; life, breath and who we are. No matter what your status in life is, you are there because it is God’s will for you. You may think that it is because of all that you have done and because you have worked hard to get where you are but, from where did your abilities come?

God has given each of us certain levels of abilities, desires and drives to accomplish all that He has planned for us. Unfortunately, sin in our lives corrupts these desires and in many cases we find ourselves using these abilities for our own selfish reasons.

And when we do become successful we pride ourselves in our own abilities to have reached the level that we have. We don’t like to think that others did this for us or that we didn’t do this on our own. Even God is left out because He isn’t important in our lives. I hope you are not one of those who believe this.

Ecclesiastes 5:19
As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

Where you are in the status of life you are there because it is Gods will for you. What you do with it is your responsibility. You can squander it or use it for the betterment of others. The direction you go will determine the end results. There are always consequences to choices and the choices we make are done so based on our standing before God.

 If we come to a point in our life that we have repented of our sinfulness towards God and have submitted to the Lordship of Jesus our choices, for the most part, will be for the betterment of others. We will be content with what have and we will be happy with where God has put us.

However, if we are still living in our sinfulness and have continually rejected Gods offer of salvation, consisting of forgiveness for our sins and the gift of eternal life given only through Jesus, we won’t be content with what we have and we will continually strive to get more, bigger and better of what we have and of the things we don’t have and desire.

So, if you gave thanks this past Thanksgiving to whom did you give thanks? The answer to that question is a simple way of determining where you stand before God. And if you didn’t give thanks at all to anyone you stand, already, condemned before God. Condemned to face the wrath of God. And that is a place you do not want to be.

But that can all change and it can change right now. All you have to do is to cry out to God and admit your sinfulness, ask for forgiveness and throw your eternal future on the finished work of Jesus who died to pay the penalty for sins and who rose bodily from the grave to give eternal life to those who are forgiven, to those who will submit to Jesus as Lord of their life.

Then, when next Thanksgiving comes around, giving thanks will be easy because you will be giving thanks to God, to Jesus the giver of life and all that we have and all that we are.

To whom did you give thanks? 

Ephesians 5:19-20 (New King James Version)

¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Giving thanks always for all things to God our Father can be a daily occurence and one we can do all year-long, not just on Thanksgiving. However, unless you become “born again” to repent of your sinfulness and submit to Jesus as Lord, you cannot give thanks to the One to Whom it is due.

Won’t you do that now? Then you, too, will be giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is true Thanks Giving.