Give thanks …
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 107:1
Gratitude involves the realization that the good that comes to us in our lives often comes from a source outside of ourselves ... God. Many social scientists acknowledge that the virtue of gratitude (and other virtues as well) reaches its full expression when embedded in a worldview, such as the Christian worldview.
James W. Sire defines a worldview as "a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic construction of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being."
Basically, your worldview is your view of the who, what, when, why and how of your life. Your worldview dictates the answer to those questions. In the Bible, there is a clear biblical worldview of gratitude and giving thanks. God is our creator, and He is good. Good things come from God. Good comes to both the righteous and the unrighteous. The good of life is not from us, but from God. We are to give thanks to God because of who He is ... not just because of what He does.
If you think that everything good that happens to you is just by chance or luck, you probably do not find as much joy in the blessings. Because you will just as frequently experience bad luck. Then you feel like it does not matter because you have no control. You live resigned, cynical, and not at all grateful.
But, what if you could live every day knowing, believing, living into the truth that God is good and that He gives good gifts to His children? You and I might look for the good even when there is bad. We might find ourselves filled with joy, happiness, thankfulness, gratitude for even the smallest things. Because our God is a good God.
May you and your family have a blessed and thank full Thanksgiving. Let’s be thankful for - and especially thankful to - our good God.
-Pastor Jerry