“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude”

– William Shakespeare

Social graces, such as saying, “please” and “thank you” are the “Oil of Civilization,” but they are far more than that. They are not just a matter of being nice. Gratitude, being genuinely thankful, carries with it blessing, maturity, and even spiritual growth and strength.

Most important, it is a matter of obedience to God!

One may question which comes first, gratitude or happiness, but it goes without saying that ungrateful people are generally unhappy as well. While we may believe that circumstances must be pleasant before we can be thankful, the Bible is clear that God expects us to be thankful without regard to our circumstances; and when we obey His command to be grateful, we generally find those circumstances become more tolerable, or even beneficial.

James teaches us in his epistle,

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete. . . .” (James 1:2-4, NKJV).

Experience teaches all who are paying attention that those who never encounter obstacles or troubles tend to remain weak in many ways. No athlete becomes a champion by sitting around all day!

Throughout the year, but certainly at the season of Thanksgiving, every American ought to be grateful to God for all His goodness to us!

Gratitude acknowledges a debt. Psalm 92 speaks of God’s “lovingkindness” to us which is manifested in natural phenomenon such as nourishing rains and warm sunshine, and in personal ways, such as when he puts food on our table and a roof over our heads. He blesses us in a multitude of ways every day.

Gratitude acknowledges that we would be in difficult straits without Him, and that He improves our lives.

The greatest improvement God makes in peoples’ lives is to forgive their sins when they repent and trust Him to provide that forgiveness. This simple but important transaction was made possible by Christ’s death upon the cross some two thousand years ago. The list of benefits that accrue to everyone who has been thus forgiven is far too extensive to include here, but it includes such things as these: we are no longer enemies of God, but rather children.

“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,” (John 1:12).

Our destiny is to be in Heaven with Him experiencing all His love, goodness, and grace for eternity. It also, by the way, removes Hell as a concern. Those who trust in Christ will never enter that dark place and will know nothing of its horrors!

Gratitude is a mark of humility. We like to think that we receive good things either because we deserve them, or because we worked hard for them. The fact is that we neither deserve God’s grace in our lives, nor can we earn it. Due to the reality that “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags,” (Isaiah 64:6), and that God’s assessment of our goodness is that “there is none righteous, no, not one,” (Romans 3:10), we bring nothing to the table.

God provides bountifully out of His grace and goodness, not because we deserve it!

True gratitude must express itself. When a person realizes how another person has helped him, and where he would be without that help, he senses the need to say something, to relieve himself of the “debt” of gratitude.

God has been good to humanity, providing for us in more ways than we can ever express. America’s Founders understood this and took it upon themselves to set aside time to show God their gratitude, and to remind themselves of the extent of their indebtedness to their Creator.

America’s annual Thanksgiving celebration has been a continuation of that early acknowledgment of God’s grace “shed” upon this nation.

Gratitude is the best antidote to bitterness. It is a sad testimony to mankind’s selfishness that we can have everything one might desire yet be bitter. An important lesson for all to learn is that our contentment or happiness is largely a matter of choice.

Happiness is more closely related to gratitude than to good circumstances!

It is a failure to understand this that has turned so many young Americans into whiners. They live in the most prosperous of times yet find it impossible to be content! Much of the current world’s population yearns to be in America, and even poor Americans live better than the very wealthy did two hundred years ago, yet it seems that all we see and hear in the news is the moaning and complaining of young people (and others) across the nation.

It would be humorous if it were not so sad that as we come to the annual Thanksgiving week, we hear much about giving thanks, but virtually nothing about who the recipient of that gratitude is.

The idea of gratitude inherently calls for a recipient of the thanks. 

In the same way that it would be silly to have a birthday party for no one, it is silly to celebrate a day of giving thanks without declaring to whom we are thankful!

God commands us to be thankful, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. . . .” (I Thes. 5:18). But He is also glorified by our gratitude. As we express our thanks to God for who He is and for all the good He has done, He is exalted in the eyes of those who hear those words of praise.

It is fitting that we thank Him, for He is good, and as the Psalm states it, “His mercy endures forever!”

Thanksgiving comes but once a year, but every day is a good day to pause in your activities to remember God’s goodness to you, and  to thank Him for the many ways He has blessed you and your family.