If you look up verses about thanksgiving in the Bible, there is not really a reason given to thank the Lord except God’s goodness. Regardless of the situation, His goodness is enough for us. Whether we live in Africa and have nothing or live in America in a rich household, His goodness toward us is always worth giving thanks. However, sometimes our life experiences convince us otherwise. We have to be convinced of God’s goodness.

Roman 8:28 says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. If we fail to believe that God is nothing but good to us then we can’t truly give thanks to him. We have to let God come into the places in our lives that we feel He has failed us and let him heal those parts of our hearts. If we believe God is good and always working, then there are always things to be thankful for.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that giving thanks is God’s will for us. His will for us is good therefore giving thanks to God can only lead to goodness and blessing in our lives. Giving thanks can come quite unnaturally to a lot of us especially in hard times. So what does thanksgiving bring? Simply, it brings perspective to our lives. Thanksgiving gets us out of our routine and forces us to look around and see what God is doing in the midst of our messy lives.

In Numbers 21, Moses and the Israelites were traveling along the Red sea. They began to speak against the Lord, complaining, and not being grateful that God has brought them out of Egypt. The Lord sent venomous snakes among them and many died. Once Moses repented, God told him to make a bronze snake and anyone who looked up at it would be saved. It was only when the people began to look around at the circumstances that they perished. But when they looked up at the bronze snake, not at the snakes around them they were saved. Without thankfulness, we live in bitterness always mad at God for not providing or working how we think He should be. But it’s when we look up and on Jesus that we can truly see what God has done for us. 

If we could truly practice this in our lives and keep our gratefulness towards God, our thanksgiving would become abiding. You would begin to live from a place of thankfulness constantly focused on God. How can God give us more if we aren’t even thankful for what we have? Blessing and thriving come from living from a place of thanksgiving. Not just one day a year but every second of every day. How could God not bless that? Parents love to lavish gifts on their children. But if it was never acknowledged, the gifts would probably come less and less. It is God’s will to pour out his goodness and blessings on us. So let’s be thankful for what He has done. But also simply who He is. He is always good and always faithful. What is there not to be thankful for, especially if He is working all things together for our good?