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choose to be thankful


This week is THANSKGIVING.  I believe that an attitude of being grateful is a choice.  Far too many of us have fallen in to the pattern of trusting our situations to make us happy or thankful when it ought to be a steady or constant in our lives.  Like living by faith is a choice, being thankful is a choice. 

Philippians 1:3  NLT
Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.

That verse takes on new meaning for me when I step back to see all God is doing and has done.  I am grateful for my family and the time we will be able to spend together this holiday.  I am grateful for my friends and church family. You are part of my thanks.  Many of you have a special place in my heart, and I am thankful for what I have seen in your experience of faith.

God has a plan.  As we examine AND experience God Himself we will be thankful and fall ever more in love with Him.  I believe that being thankful is an outcome of being consumed by Him.

There is another reason to make sure that we do not allow our situations of life to dictate how we feel or if we are thankful.  Choose before anything happens to be thankful.  Pick some things that you don’t normally express thanks for and tell God.  Look at the people in your life who rarely hear thanks and tell them that you are grateful for them.  Don’t let the situations of life determine your thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5:18  NLT
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Yes.  It is God’s will for us to be thankful.  Determine it now.

Psalms 7:17 NASB
I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

Giving thanks is a choice, and it is a choice that few people seem to take seriously.  I challenge each of us to not let opportunities to be thankful to pass us by. 
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