Giving Thanks vs. Being Thankful

During our eleven years in Florida, we would go to my aunts house for Easter and Thanksgiving. Both holidays were a fun time of celebration, fellowship, and food. A tradition during Thanksgiving was to go around the room and tell what we were thankful for. Of course everyone was thankful for family and friends and a home. As I contemplated Thanksgiving this year something occurred to me, being thankful verses giving thanks. 

Aren't they the same? Maybe. Maybe not. It could be in the way thankful thoughts are expressed or maybe it is about attitude. As a human being I have many things to be thankful for. As a human being I can easily say that the things that I am thankful for were forged by my own will or by my own hands. If I am working hard and thinking positive thoughts then the things I gain, whether material or mental well being, have come about though my own effort. Do you see where I am going here?
(Romans 1:21, Romans 14:6)

Now let's look at this from a different perspective, that of a follower of Jesus Christ. I did a quick search on "give thanks" and found that that phrase alone appeared 74 times (44 of those in Psalms) and that most of them were followed by "to the Lord" (or other names of God). Some of those listed in the New Testament were Jesus offering thanks to God the Father during the Last Supper. Of all the verses in the Bible that would lead us to a state of thanksgiving, the ones I read were enough to remind me to give thanks where thanks is due, to God. 

We must be willing to recognize God for who He is and not who we think He should be. We don't "get" God because we are not God. Like Job, we are to thank God in the bad and in the good BECAUSE HE IS GOD. He created us. He knows us. He knows what is best for us. He loves us. But more important than all those facts is that He is God and deserves our devotion, our praise, and our thanksgiving!

Take a few minutes this week and search out the "giving thanks" verses, also read Mary's Song in Luke 1:46-55. Then spend time thanking God for all He is, then thank Him for all He has done, then thank Him for what He has done in your life personally. Oh and if you have the chance to "tell what you are thankful for" around the Thanksgiving table this year, be sure to give all the glory (credit) to God because it is His in the first place.

Psalms 145:10 "All Your works will give thanks to you, O Lord, and Your godly one shall bless You."