The 7 Benefits Of Being Thankful To God!
Why Should You be Thankful?
As you experience this Thanksgiving season, and celebrate Thanksgiving Day, here are some reasons why you should be thankful to God, not just on the day, and during the season, but perpetually. May this put some meaning into your giving of thanks to God, and motivate you toward the same all around the year. Here are 7 benefits of being thankful to God, and the corresponding ills that accompany not being thankful to God.
1. It pleases God:
Thanksgiving to God, pleases God. The Bible says in Psalm 92:1 “It is good to give thanks to God.” It is good to give thanks to God, because He by very nature is good (Ps. 136:1). But not everyone realizes this goodness of God, nor thanks Him for His goodness to them. When Jesus healed the ten lepers who pleaded with Him for healing (Luke 17:11-19), only one of those healed returned to thank Jesus. Jesus was pleased with this man and pronounced a blessing upon Him. But he questioned the other nine: where were they, why did they not return with their fellow to thank the Lord? Ungratefulness to God displeases Him.
Thanksgiving pleases God, and He receives it as an act of worship, of giving glory to God (Luke 17:18). Charles Spurgeon has said, “A grateful spirit should ever be cultivated by the Christian; and especially after deliverances we should prepare a song for our God. Earth should be a temple filled with the songs of grateful saints, and every day should be a censor smoking with the sweet incense of thanksgiving.”[1]
Do you regularly burn the sweet incense of thanksgiving as a part of your worship that pleases God?
2. It helps us receive future blessings:
Can you imagine that you get some gift, some favor, some help from someone—they put their heart and soul into it, sacrifice time and energy to bestow this on you—and you fail to so much as utter one word of thanks?! Do you suppose that this person will be more inclined or less inclined to help you in similar fashion in the future? Any future good from that person is contingent upon a response of thanks to them for present and past favors.
How many people I know whether Christian or otherwise, who have failed to receive any further help from some past benefactor simply because they would not bring themselves to say a simple “thank you.” In Romans 1, we are told of a certain category of people whom God “gives up,” or completely abandons to themselves (Rom. 1:24). Earlier in Romans we are told the reason behind God abandoning them: “Because that, when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful…”
We lose out on the future blessings of God, the smile of God, when we don’t say thank you to Him for past and present blessings. For many this results in temporary wandering from God, but for many others, sadly, it results in eternal separation from God.
3. It helps us recognize present blessings:
When we go through life unable to enjoy what we have in life, it may be a sign that we are unthankful people. We fail to realize what good we have been given by God, or other people through God, when we are not thankful. We walk through a beautiful garden, as it were, failing to enjoy the colorful and fragrant flowers, worrying rather about the lack of greenery in one or two patches of grass. A thankful and grateful attitude however, helps us see the blessings we do have, what good we have received from God, and what ill He has kept away from us.
4. It keeps us in a positive frame of mind and mood:
Often you will find that the most depressed, morose and melancholy people, are also to a certain extent, the most ungrateful and unthankful. A lack of thanks to God and others keeps us imprisoned in the fortress of bitterness, negativity and fear, where no rays of hope can penetrate, unless the doors are unlocked with the key of grateful and thankful praise to God. How many people spend time and money on fixing depressive states with therapy and medication, when perhaps, just perhaps, it many cases it may be alleviated by cultivating a regular spirit of thanksgiving to God. Psalm 97:12 says, “Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks for the memory of His holiness.”
I’m sure, if you did a study of the Bible, you’d find a lot more instances that corelate joy and giving of thanks! Thanksgiving to God promotes a more positive outlook to life than what we might otherwise have in a fallen world whose natural bend is towards all that’s negative. Often you will find that the most depressed, morose and melancholy people, are also to a certain extent, the most ungrateful and unthankful. A lack of thanks to God and others keeps us imprisoned in the fortress of bitterness, negativity and fear, where no rays of hope can penetrate, unless the doors are unlocked with the key of grateful and thankful praise to God. How many people spend time and money on fixing depressive states with therapy and medication, when perhaps, just perhaps, it many cases it may be alleviated by cultivating a regular spirit of thanksgiving to God. Psalm 97:12 says, “Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks for the memory of His holiness.”
I’m sure, if you did a study of the Bible, you’d find a lot more instances that corelate joy and giving of thanks! Thanksgiving to God promotes a more positive outlook to life than what we might otherwise have in a fallen world whose natural bend is towards all that’s negative.
5. It promotes relational harmony:
Thanksgiving also promotes relational harmony. As more than alluded to so far, it promotes harmony between God and man. But it certainly also promotes relational harmony between fellowmen. Can you imagine what your relationships with people would be like if you thanked every single person who ever did even the least good for you? What if everyone in the world did that too? It would most certainly promote a lot more harmony between those who are otherwise at odds with each other. May the Lord make us more sensitive to being thankful to Him, and to those people we ought to thank for big favors and gifts, and the very little ones too.
6. It makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ:
In John 11, before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He prayed: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” The Holy Son of God, gives thanks to His Father. This is not the first recorded instance of Jesus giving thanks, neither is it the last. There are many instances of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, giving thanks to God. As the Son of God, He was thankful to the Father. As the Son of Man, He models for men a spirit of thankfulness to God at all times. Thankfulness to God makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you like Jesus? Would you like to be more like Him? The first step in becoming like Jesus Christ, is to believe in Jesus Christ—that He is the Son of God who came into this world to save us from the penalty of sins, and grant us forgiveness; that He died on the cross to secure this pardon, and that He rose from the dead just as He said. When you believe in Jesus, your eyes will be opened to a whole world of thankfulness to God for countless blessings.
7. It points people to God, the object of our thankfulness
Around this time of year especially, you will hear many people saying they are thankful, without the thankfulness being aimed at any object. For most people, the season of Thanksgiving as a holiday is simply a cultural relic of the West, whose true meaning has been obscured. In the Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, George Washington called the United States to a season of Thanksgiving to God. With so many who don’t believe in God giving thanks to no particular person or being, but simply mouthing the words “I’m thankful for…” without saying and meaning “I’m thankful to…” what a wonderful opportunity it is for those of us who are truly thankful to God to point these people to God.
Let us make known objectively, absolutely, and unashamedly, that we are thankful to God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, for His many benefits and blessings to us.
Kenny Damara, © 2022
References:
[1] C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
