Let me say right off that every season is a season for thanksgiving, and not just one time a year. Giving thanks should come as natural to us as breathing. And we should be doing it all the time. Because if we just “think,” we will give thanks!
Everybody reading has a good reason to give thanks.
We should have thanked Him when we got up this morning; when our eyes came open we should have said, “Lord, thank You for last night’s sleep while we were yet in the very image of death” … because I hope we understand that we are never so close to death than when we are sleeping; don’t anything need to happen but for one breath to stop — because we were already in a dead man posture for hours at a time unaware of what’s going on around us; all our heart has to do is stop one heartbeat, and we are gone from this side.
So “while I slept, thank You Lord!”
We need to thank him for safe travels. God only knows what was headed our way while we were on the dangerous highways; somebody texting (which we shouldn’t do while driving) may have been heading in our direction, but God altered their route to protect us because we belong to Him; or just when the traffic light turned green you took off not knowing that somebody was running the red light, yet God pulled them back to save you.
I remember clearly a few years ago when I was on the phone with a lady who was the secretary of a Baptist Association who was booking me for a program. She was on the phone at a stop light; while talking to her our phones lost signal so I called her back, and when I did she said to me, “Rev. Ellis, you just saved my life!” I said, “what do you mean?”
She said. “while sitting at this traffic light on red, when it changed to green you called and I hesitated so that I could answer your call, and at that very moment a big truck ran the traffic light.” She said, “if you had not called when you did I would have pulled right in front of it!”
She added, “God is good” and I agreed.
Community, thank God for what you know that He has done; but we had better learn to thank Him for the unseen dangers and alternate routes that God puts us on to prevent something from happening.
Let me say this morning, community, that we ought not to complain all the time and get frustrated when we have to take an alternate route or when things happen and we have to take a detour. We just don’t know what was coming our way that could have meant instant death or turned our lives upside down, but God put us where we had to take a detour to keep it from happening.
God orders our steps; He protects us when we don’t even know it (Ps. 37:23)! Learn how to thank him for the interruptions, the detours and for what could have happened while you were asleep and say, “Lord, I thank you for the detour” … you had a reason for it; and we thank you for the fire that broke out last night while I was sleep but you blew it out so that it did not consume me. As a community family, let us thank Him!
We just celebrated “Thanksgiving Day.” It was a time for the celebrating of our families and all the things that God has done; and if there are any family squabbles it’s time to come together and let it go; if you have a family at all you’d better thank God for them; it’s no time for family splits, holding grudges and walking around angry; it was a time for families to come together and share a Thanksgiving meal. Good eating, good fellowship and some extra pounds.
But some of us doubted whether or not we would even be here today; some of us really went through physically, mentally and emotionally this year; you struggled with depression and discouragement. Satan whispered in your ears “this is it!” but friends, you are still here!
You ought to have thanksgiving in your heart. Sometimes community, we just have to shut it down and give thanks; no prayer requests, just give thanks; thank Him for what you already have. The Psalmist calls on the redeemed to give thanks (Ps. 107:2); because if anybody ought to give thanks it ought to be the redeemed! He said, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good (Ps. 107:1)”…community that’s it in a nutshell; and the word “thanks” means “an expression of gratitude.”
Why should we express gratitude to God? The psalmist tells us; “because the Lord is GOOD.” Reader, what is your gratitude attitude? What we went through this year could have took us out but guess what? ”the Lord is GOOD!” Community, the Lord is good every day. In this season of thanksgiving and Christmas, let’s make every day “Thanksgiving Day.”
The Rev. George Ellis is pastor of Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
