¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We often worry about discovering God's will. Who should I marry? What town should I live in? Where should I go to college? Those are certainly important questions, but the bible is not exactly black & white on them. 

Scripture is, however, black and white on other things - things that we sometimes take for granted and get lazy about.  

Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all - yes, ALL - circumstances. THAT is God's will. 

For Thanksgiving, I want to focus on v. 18: "give thanks in all circumstances."

Why should we always give thanks? Three reasons: 

1.Thanksgiving glorifies God. It makes him look big. When we give thanks for something or somebody, we are ascribing value to that thing or that person. If one of my kids thank me for a gift I give them, I feel good. If they say they are thankful for me, I feel even better. They are ascribing value to me and declaring the joy they find in having me.  

Thankfulness that ends ultimately on God as the giver of all good gifts - and as the ultimate gift Himself -- is a form of worship. To fail to worship Him is to be stuck in pride, in our own little entitled worlds. 

Thanksgiving fights against pride and makes God bigger in our hearts.  

2. Giving thanks is an act of faith that can lead to feeling thankful. 

I don't always feel thankful, but being obedient to this command can be an act of faith that leads to thankfulness being stirred up. It's the holy version of "fake it til you make it." We're not pretending to be thankful, but we are giving thanks for what we know is good even if our hearts are weighed down by troubles and worries and pain. Giving thanks has a way of lifting our eyes upward so that God's Spirit can fill us afresh with his peace. 

This is why Paul also said, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7). 

Prayer that is infused with thanksgiving can lead to peace guarding our hearts. And a heart at peace is a thankful heart. 

3. Giving thanks for the past helps build our faith for the present. 

I don't know about you, but I can have a tendency to move from one problem to the next, without pausing to reflect on how God has shown up in the trial I was praying about last week.

As a result, I have made a habit of listing out things God has done - big and small - each week, so that when I'm feeling discouraged I can can look back and remember how I once worried about Problem X, but God has taken care of Problem X....and so I can now trust him with Problem Y.

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That's the WHY.

What about the WHAT? 

What should we give thanks for? Again I offer three things: 

1. Specific blessings in your individual life. How has God blessed you personally? Consider your family, friends, health, financial provision. Did the baby finally sleep through the night? Were there successes at work? Did you get a good deal on that new car? Did the difficult conversation go better than expected? 

Take time each day to recount what God did the day before. Take time each week to recount what God did the week before. And maybe take time on Thanksgiving Day to consider the previous year of blessings. List them out. Be specific. 

2. The character and nature of God. Consider who God is. Consider his love, his faithfulness, his sovereignty. Consider him as the Creator of all that is beautiful in nature and all the wonderful tastes at a Thanksgiving dinner.

This is where the bible can be so important -- it reminds us of who God is and what He is up to. Even the darkest stories in the book of Judges serve to show us how faithful God is to come after such broken people, how much of a redeemer we have that He didn't leave us in our sin. 

3. What Christ has accomplished for you in his life, death and resurreciton - and what will be ushered in when He returns. 

In his life, he was obedient because you could not be. 

In his death, he became sin so that you could be declared righteous. 

In his resurrection, he gave death itself a lethal injection so that we could live even though we die. 

In his return, He will eradicate death for good and give us a new earth where all tears will be wiped away. 

In his life, he showed us how to love sinners.  

In his death, he showed us how far he would go to redeem sinners. 

In his resurrection, he gave us His Spirit to love like He did. 

In his return, we will have new glorious bodies that will never struggle to be thankful. 

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Today is a good day to start some new habits of thanksgiving. 

May you give thanks -- and may you be filled with thankfulness - because this is God's will for you.