The Blesser || Thankfulness || Part 3

I’m thankful you’re here. I’m thankful you’re reading this. I’m thankful you’ve checked out this blog. I’m thankful you’re joining us for our new blog series on thankfulness.

We’re in a five-part series called “Thankfulness” to prepare us for the seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we can enter them with a mindset of gratitude. This series talks about different things we can be thankful for God. In the last part, we talked about how we can be thankful that God provides for all our needs. God created us and knew what we needed to operate according to his will and plan.

In Part 3, we’ll talk about how we can be thankful for God’s blessings.

Philippians 4:6

NASB	NLT	VOICE
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.	6  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.	6 Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come.

Let’s define “blessing” before we get too deep into this. A blessing is described as happiness, praise, divine favor, or heavenly reward, the antidote for cursing. God’s happiness, praise, and favor with us are the blessings for which we can be thankful. As described in the NLT and VOICE translations, thankfulness can be found in what we have, and what God has done for us so far in our lives. We can find different parts of our lives to be thankful for. It doesn’t have to be a complex thankful prayer that we need to say. We can be thankful for our first breath when we wake up. We can also be thankful for the home we have, the friends we have, the clothes on our back, the food in the fridge, etc. God’s provision, as mentioned in part 2, is something we can be thankful for at all times. We can go to God with all things and find his blessings in moments of chaos.

Matthew 6:25

NASB	NLT	VOICE
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; not for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?	25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?	25 Here is the bottom line: do not worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up.

Because of the adverse effects of worry, Jesus doesn’t want to worry about the needs God promises to supply: food, liquids, and clothes to wear. Worry can damage our health, disrupt our productivity, negatively affect how we communicate with others, and be joyless in our day. Reduce our ability to trust in God. Worry and concern are different because worry paralyzes us, while concern moves us to action. We can be concerned about those needs because these things are the core of what we need to survive, and we need to act to fulfill those needs. Yet when we’re just worried about it, we’re paralyzed. We’re coming up with many different ways to solve these problems, and the act of coming up with them tires us out to the point we tire ourselves out and still don’t meet our own needs.

1 Peter 5:7

NASB	NLT	VOICE
7 having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.	7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.	7 Since God cares for you, let Him carry all your burdens and worries.

Because the NASB translation is the second half of the sentence, let me share with you verse 6, too. It discusses humbling ourselves under God’s control to be raised at the right time.

Carrying our worries, stresses, and daily struggles by ourselves is a sign that we aren’t fully trusting God with our lives. We must be humble to recognize that God cares about our needs and allow others to help us meet those needs. The world has taught us to be heavily individualized, but God didn’t create us to do life alone. There are things in life that we need to have others help us, and we need the gifts and talents of others to help us accomplish the plans God has for us.

Sometimes, we think our struggles caused by our sins and foolishness aren’t God’s concern. When we turn to God in repentance, he takes the weight of our struggles. Letting God carry our anxieties is a sign of action, not passiveness. Don’t submit to circumstances; submit to the Lord, who controls those circumstances. Again, we think that our problems are only ours to solve. God is ready to hear our problems, take the weight of our anxiety and concern with our sins, and allow us to live with repentance and try to be better tomorrow.

God will bless our lives, promising us the basic needs we do not have to worry about and allowing us to use our energy to honor and care for his creation. The next part will discuss how we can be thankful for God’s character and works.

1 Chronicles 16:34

34          Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.