What are you thankful for?

Psalm 24:1-2

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What do you have to be thankful for? It’s maybe a question that gives us a bit of pause. If you’re like me, you’re probably someone who focuses on a lot of struggles and difficulties that you have maybe at work or at home, or that you see in society or even in the world, and you maybe don’t spend enough time thinking about things to be thankful for. But it’s a good question for us to consider. And so what do you have to be thankful for?

Well, think about this. Do you have a place to live? Do you have clothing on your back? Do you have food to eat on a regular basis? Do you have a way to get around to where you need to go? Do you have a job? Do you have a family that loves you and supports you? Do you have friends who care about you? Are you healthy? I’m guessing for many of you watching this, you maybe would say, yeah, but… Yeah, I have a family, but they could care about me more. Or I have some friends, but I could use more friends, or I do have a place to live, but I would certainly enjoy a nicer place or a better job or all of those things.

But I encourage you, don’t think about what you don’t have. Don’t think about the negative, but think about what you do have. What do you have to be thankful for? I know there’s some cynics out there that probably say “absolutely nothing.” Well, I don’t believe it. If you had absolutely nothing, you’d be dead because you’d have no food or no water to drink, nothing at all to sustain you. But the reality is that all of us have something, right? We have some of those things to some degree, and maybe we can kind of gripe and complain about some of them, but really, we are provided for in huge ways. It’s good for us to reflect on that.

Where does it all really come from? The things that we do have, the good things that are provided for us in this life? Is it really because we ourselves are so strong and so smart and so talented? Or is it because of random chance? Well, the Bible shares this with us in Psalm 24, verses one and two.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything that fills it, the world and all who live in it. Because he founded it on the seas and he established it on the rivers. (Psalm 24:1-2)

Those verses remind us that everything that exists is God’s. It belongs to him, including even us. So everything that we have, every good thing that we enjoy in this life, comes from him. And so we have a lot to be thankful for, and we know who we should be thanking, God. It encourages us to do that as we offer prayers of thanksgiving to him as we speak his praises as we bring our offerings to carry out his work, as we show our appreciation, our generosity, and care for other people as well. But God hasn’t just taken care of many of our physical needs. He also provides for our spiritual needs as well.

You know, really, none of us deserve anything God has provided for us. We gripe and complain all the time. God should take it all away, but instead he provides for us our food and clothing and everything we need to be sustained with in this life. But he also has taken care of our future. In fact, he has done so through His Son, Jesus Christ, who he sent to a cross to suffer the punishment for your griping and complaining, for your discontentment, for your anger with God, for not giving you all that you want. He’s paid for it all in Christ, and he has guaranteed you a future with him forever in heaven, in a place where every need is taken care of. Not like here, but it’s perfectly taken care of in every way. Where there’ll be no more need no more want forever with him in heaven because of Christ.

So I encourage you this Thanksgiving to reflect on the things that you have. Not all the bad things going on in your life, but the good things, the good things that God has provided you with. Not the least of which is eternal salvation, which is yours through His Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.