I am person who needs to be motivated to do things. I think most of us are. Being able to articulate to myself why I need to do certain things often provides me with the proper motivation to do them. So, when I think about the encouragement we receive from God to be thnakful, I often think about the reasons why thankfulness is important and even profitable. Let me share a few with you.
First, I think about what I have to be thankful for, and the list is long. Some broad categories include being thankful to God for the many blessings He provides me: things like life, health, family, income, friends, grace, salvation, and eternal hope. Another category would be thankfulness for the generosity of others in my life: the patience they show me, the investments they make in my life, the provisions they provide me, the love they afford me.
Why should I be thankful for these sorts things? Well for one, it is just right to be appropriately thankful for the things that others do for you. I was always taught that ungratefulness is just rude. But let’s face it some of us need more motivation than just doing the right thing, after all we are basically selfish at heart. Here is where God is very good and gracious. The thankful heart is a joyful heart and a heart full of faith. The more we give thanks to those who are good to us, including God, the more we will learn to trust them and depend on them in future times of need.
Trusting God is at the heart of spiritual peace, growth and health. As we grow in our trust in God and our willingness to depend on him, we grow content in life and are able to live in a more peaceful state, even when life is at its most tumultuous. If thankfulness will feed my faith in God and thus create a peacefulness within me, then I want to be a thankful person.
Are you looking for peace? Think about all the things for which you have to be thankful, direct your thanks genuinely toward God and begin to live in a growing life of faith. Peace and hope will soon follow.
I really can’t identify too much with David when he talks about how his enemies number more the hairs on his head and how they hate him. Oh, there are times I think that certain people don’t like me, but usually that is just my own insecurity more than a truth. David, after all, was hated for his zeal for the Lord. I don’t think, to my shame, that my zeal is nearly as strong as David so as to invite violent enemies and the hatred of my own brothers.
However, what I can identify with is David’s anguish and his great desire for God to save him. I think most of us can identify with David’s plea “Let not the flood waters sweep over me.” In Psalm 69 David talks about all these things; how he is hated and persecuted because of his zeal for God. The psalm is one long prayer, and in it we see how the Holy Spirit works in an anguished heart to bring it comfort.
David, as he prayed, was reminded of some compelling facts about God: 
- God’s love is abundant (vs. 13)
- God’s faithfulness is saving (vs. 13)
- God’s love is steadfast and good (vs. 16)
- God’s mercy is abundant (vs. 16)
- God’s salvation can lift us out of despair (vs. 29)
- God is pleased when we praise him in the midst of our despair (vs.31)
And my personal favorite: God hears the needy and does not despise the captive.
We all have been and will again be needy. We all have been held captive. Some are still held captive by various troubles, worries and sins. All these things can weigh heavy on a soul, but for the one who knows that God hears the needy and loves and redeems the captive there is great comfort.
I ask you today, will you love his name and dwell in his presence? It is only as we learn to abide in Christ that we learn to praise God in the midst of our suffering. But it is faith in the truth of what we have said about God today that gives us the courage to abide in him. Know, trust and abide for God hears you.
As I consider 1 Peter 1:3-4, I consider that there are many beautiful things in this world. There are many people and places that receive our affections and love. And yet, no matter how lovely they are, the fact remains that they are decaying, they are defiled by sin, and they are fading away. This is a sad thing for us to know. But the knowledge of this fact makes the beauty of our inheritance all the greater, for it will be far lovelier than any thing or person we love today. Our affections for it will be greater than any affection we have felt for any thing or person ever, and it is not affected by sin; it is perfect in every way, and it will not go away ever. For that reason we set our hope there, keeping our eyes fixed on that prize.
