How Do You Give Thanks?

Today was the beginning of a series on Thanksgiving and Thankfulness (thanks YM360) with the middle schoolers and I had the privilege of kicking off the month.  The lesson started in the Old Testament (Lev 7:12-15) with God giving the Israelites the Law with specific instructions on how to give thanks with a peace offering through the Levitical priests.  Can you imagine having to go through a priest to give God thanks for all He’s done for you?  Well, that was the system.  There was no direct connection to the Father unless He initiated communication.  Sacrifices and such had to be done by the priests or there was a violation of God’s law.  

However, after Israel had been so sinful (like we often are), they took the sacrifices for granted violating God’s Law and sinning purposefully then giving sacrifices to make up for it with no real intention of turning from their ways.  So God told the people to stop their wicked ways and turn from their sin – to do good for others, to honor the name of the Lord, to seek justice and to take care of those with no voice of their own who couldn’t take care of themselves (Isa 1:12-17).  The people continued to sin and then God sent Jesus to us. 

Jesus was, of course, the ultimate sacrifice.  No longer are we dependent upon anyone else going to the Father for us.  We can go to the Father and give thanks for ourselves.  There are a few ways I wanted to reference for us to give Him thanks and for us to give sacrifices (Heb 13:15-16) that will please Him: 

• Give Him Praise (Psa 105:1) – the sacrifice of praise is one way that we can give God thanks.  Whether things are going the way we want or even understand, giving God praise is the appropriate thing to do.  No matter what is going on, God has done more than enough.  He gave us Jesus and no matter what we face here on earth, Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us that where He is, we can be there, too.  If He never does another thing for us, He has done that.  And I, for one, am so grateful that He has.  So post a scripture or write out a prayer of praise or share the good news of what God has done for you.  Give God praise for what He has done in your life. 
• Be Like Christ (John 14:15) – Jesus called us to be His disciples, which means we are His followers.  When people see us, they should see Him.  Just as He taught that He and the Father are one, we should be one with Him.  If we abide in Him and He abides in us, we should look and act like Him.  Our obedience to His instruction is how the world knows we are His.  So it is our responsibility to make sure there is no question about who we belong to.  Yes, we’ll make mistakes, but our reaction to them should not be that of the world…..we should look like Jesus. 
• Do good to and for others in need (John 15:12) – the second of the great commands Jesus left with us was to love our neighbor as our selves.  That means sacrificing for the good of others.  When we get past ourselves and become more and more like Christ, we will begin to seek ways to do more for our fellow man.  It might be volunteering at a homeless shelter or helping a neighbor in the yard or giving to a food pantry.  We don’t have to look for the grand gestures, we need to look for the everyday ways we can help those in need….maybe a meal when a neighbor doesn’t feel well or helping them with their groceries or walking the dog for them.  When we “love” our neighbor as Jesus has loved us (better than we deserve and always for our good), then we show God’s love to the world around us.  

Think about how you are showing thankfulness to God and showing Him to others.  Remember it needs to be in more than just words.  Let your life be a praise unto Him.  Let’s live to please Him.