When You Do This You Do God's Will

​1 Thes. 5:18 - "…in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."   NASU 

• Tomorrow Is Thanksgiving Day In The USA 

First of all, I would like to wish every one of my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Tomorrow is the day that has been set aside for us to give thanks for all the blessings we have been given from God. I am sure we do not wait until this one day of the year to give thanks. 

• Today And Every Day Is Thanksgiving Day For All Christians 

According to the scripture above we are to give "thanks" in everything. It would also be my understanding that we are to give "thanks" every day. Paul says that when we give "thanks" we are doing the Will of God and one way to do God's Will daily is to give thanks daily.
 
For years I have had people say to me that they want the Will of God to be done in their lives. I would say to them be "thankful and you will be doing the Will of God." They always got this strange look on their face and would say, "Yeah, I am thankful, but you know, I really want to do the Will of God."

I would always tell them, "According to the Apostle Paul, if you are "thankful" in everything you will be doing the Will of God." 

• Being Thankful Is An Attitude That Guides Our Behavior 

Almost always when you tell someone to be thankful in all things their next question will be, "So God expects us to give thanks even if one of our children dies?"
 
Instead of me answering that question since I have never had one of my children die I quote a man who was familiar with the death of a child. In fact, he lost 10 children in one disastrous day. Job's wife even wanted him to curse God for what had just happened to their family.
 
Job 2:9-10 - Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" 10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. NASU
 
Job had just lost his 10 children, all his animals, his herds or in other words, his wealth. But Job's ATTITUDE guides his BEHAVIOR.
 
He didn't sin by saying things that he would later regret.

Job wasn't "thankful" for the death of his children or the loss of his wealth, but his attitude was he would accept good from God, and now that adversity had come into his life he would accept it as well. Many times in life we have to accept things that we don't like.

• Job Is A Great Example For Us All 

In life, everything that happens to us will not always make us say "thanks."  Likewise, when those events that happen to us that stop us in our tracks we won't want to curse God and die either.
 
We must wait upon the Lord and in time once the pain has decreased some we will start to allow God to give us the answers to the trials we face.
 
Job's attitude guided his behavior. The scripture says, "In all of this Job did not sin with his lips." In other words he didn't curse God and ask to die. 

• Develop An Attitude Of Thankfulness 

The best advice that I can give you in this Pump Up is to develop an attitude of thankfulness. I know in all of my prayers I begin by giving thanks to God for something. I want to do the Will of God and one way I can do His Will is by giving thanks.
 
If you do a little inspection of your life you will find you have more to give thanks for then you might realize.
 
Develop an attitude of thankfulness and you will never regret it.
 
Think On This:
 
It isn't what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful, but what you have in your heart.
 
Many times we don't get all that we want, but we should be thankful that we don't get what we deserve.
 
Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word

Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page, Twitter or Forwarding to a friend.