With Thanksgiving just a little over a week away, now is the time of year that we start talking about all the reasons we have to be thankful. After all, the Bible tells us to “give thanks in all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). For some of us, we make a shallow list of a few things we are thankful for in passing while others of us stop and reflect on all that God has given us according to his riches and grace. The truth is that we all have much to be thankful for. God has given each of us much more than we deserve and has given us the greatest thing he can give us… himself.

The question I want you to wrestle with is “How thankful am I?” Now before you answer, I want us to go about this a different way. The opposite of being thankful is grumbling and complaining. So one way that we can determine how thankfulwe are is by examining how much we complain. The thankful heart and the complaining heart can live together. You will be one or the other, not both. Because we live in a cynical and skeptical world, I feel that many of us spend much more time complaining than we ever do being thankful. We love to focus on what is not right rather than what is right. We love to point out what it seems like God is not doing rather than what he is doing. We tend to see what we don’t have rather than all that God has given us. These thoughts don’t lead to giving thanks in all things, they lead to an attitude of grumbling that is not becoming of a child of God.

So if you want to start being thankful…stop complaining. If you want to stop complaining…start being thankful. If you want to live a life of joy…start thinking on all that God has given you. If you want to stop sucking the life out of everyone you know…start living a life of gratitude to the one who has given us all things through his Son Jesus. It’s time for us to start doing all things without grumbling and complaining, and start giving thanks in all things.

For His glory and your joy,

Pastor Charlie