Gratitude is powerful. Our word for this year is Thanksgiving and consecration. Discover in the video and article below 15 reasons why we thank God.
Call to thanksgiving
As we read this glorious hundredth psalm, we see the depth of gratitude of the psalmist. He speaks of triumphant shouting, glad service, joyful songs, thanksgiving and praise. He sets a tone of exuberance and joy. So why the exuberant thanksgiving, why the substantial exression of praise? The answer is in the 15 reasons given below.
Ps 100;
A psalm of thanksgiving.
1 Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
3 Acknowledge that Yahweh is God.
He made us, and we are His[a] —
His people, the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
5 For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal;
His faithfulness endures through all generations.
Why thank God?
1) He is God; He made us (Ps 100.3)
He is incomparable, unique, supreme, and sovereign; He is greater than any supposed deity. That’s why Psalm 95 says in verses 2 and 3 that we should enter His presence with thanksgiving, shout triumphantly to Him in song. Why? Because He is a great God, a great King above all ‘gods.’ above all that is.
2) He is Our Creator
We thank Him for the perfection of His creation, all that He made, the sun, the moon, the stars, the rain. Have you ever thought of thanking God for the sun and the moon? these are necessary for our existence on the earth and He did perfect work in them, as He did in us. this is captured beautifully in Ps 136 below.
Psalm 136:3-9 (HCSB)
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love is eternal.
4 He alone does great wonders. His love is eternal.
5 He made the heavens skillfully. His love is eternal.
6 He spread the land on the waters. His love is eternal.
7 He made the great lights: His love is eternal.
8 the sun to rule by day, His love is eternal.
9 the moon and stars to rule by night. His love is eternal.
3) He is our Creator and we belong to Him
Yes, He made us, and we are His, as the Scripture says, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. And in the new birth, we are now a people belonging to God.
4) He is our Saviour
He did not abandon us in sin when we were separated from Him. He did not condemn us to eternal separation without reprieve. Rather, the one who had no sin, became a human being so that He could suffer in our place for our sins and we could be acquitted. Consequently, we are pardoned, acquitted, declared not guilty, and reconciled with God.
And so the Scriptures say that we who were not a people have now become the people of God. We have been made heirs, we have been seated in glorious fashion in the heavenly places, given authority over the devil and his demons. The list of benefits is endless. We have reason to say thank you unceasingly.
5) His great, everlasting love
There is no way to describe the extent of the love that God has for us. Read the following Scriptures meditatively and let them set you on fire and fill you with gratitude to God for loving us. He loved us when we were unlovable and unloved. He loved and loves us with perfect love, unlike any human love. His love is unquenchable. No child of God is authorised to and justified in feeling unloved.
Psalm 107:8-9 (HCSB)
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.
1 John 3:1 (HCSB)
1 Look at how great a love[a] the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.
6) His Goodness
One of the most amazing things about God is how good He is. We take it for granted that God is good after all He is God. Not so, He could be God and be mean. Many people serve irascible and wicked deities. But if you are a believer, you know that God is supremely good, that you have done nothing to deserve such goodness.
You also know that your life is filled with the testimony of the good things He has done for you. Besides, the Bible says that only a stupid person and a fool or an idiot as one translation puts it does not know that God is good.
Ps 92.5-7
5 How magnificent are Your works, Lord,
how profound Your thoughts!
6 A stupid person does not know,
a fool does not understand this:
7 though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be eternally destroyed.
7) His good works fill us with gladness.
His good works have made us glad. We are not casual observers of the goodness of God, we are enjoyers thereof. We see His works and we delight in them. His works give us joy and we must burst out in appreciation for the gladness we derive from contemplating His works. The world is full of sorrow, but the works of God give joy. We must pray continually that He will open our eyes to see His goodness. That’s why the psalmist says For You have made me rejoice, Lord,
by what You have done;
I will shout for joy
because of the works of Your hands.
There is no person on the earth, if they were to sit down to think about it, they would not come up with something in their lives that could be better. Or see somebody who’s doing better than they are in one area or another. But we were not put on the earth to compare ourselves to other people. We were put on the earth to demonstrate the magnificence of God. And when you open yourself up to a greater dimension of gratitude, then you will see just how magnificent the works of God in your life are.
You know, I experience sometimes more intense seasons of thanksgiving, and I can see the difference that it makes to be so supremely conscious of the goodness of God. Anxiety melts away. dissatisfaction evaporates. All the issues of why this and why that, become totally insignificant. Can I challenge you today to adopt a lifestyle of thanksgiving? It is so important. We thank Him because we are glad at His works.
8) His continual provision
We must never forget that all we have comes from His hands. He made the world and all that there is in it. We pray because we believe that He responds and give good things. The Bible says that He satisfies our mouth with good things. It also says that He gives us the power to get wealth. He provides continually. We must never take it for granted. See below what Psalm 107 says about this. It is powerful.
Psalm 107:8-9 (HCSB)
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for all humanity.
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things.
Powerful stuff. May you be satisfied this year. May you be filled with good things and may your heart explode in thanksgiving and praise. It says He satisfies them. Wonderful.
9) His character – Just, righteous, true and faithful
Look how He is lauded in the first few verses of Deuteronomy 32. Our God is great, His work is perfect, His ways are entirely just, He is a faithful God, righteous and true. And it is all true. Because God has such sterling character and total moral virtue, we must thank Him. If He did not, we would be in real trouble.
Deuteronomy 32 (HCSB)
32 Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;
listen, earth, to the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain
and my word settle like dew,
like gentle rain on new grass
and showers on tender plants.
3 For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name.
Declare the greatness of our God!
4 The Rock—His work is perfect;
all His ways are entirely just.
A faithful God, without prejudice,
He is righteous and true.
10) The perfection of His Person and His ways
The above passage also brings out another dimension of God that calls for profound gratitude. His work is perfect. The psalmist has decided that He will proclaim Yahweh’s name and declare His greatness. He calls Him the Rock and declares that “His work is perfect”.
He also says that all His ways are entirely just. In other words, He is perfect. Everything He does is right. That is a powerful statement. When such a one offers you a relationship, it is something to be grateful for.
11) He is a Helper of men
Anyone who prays prayers of petition believes this. We petition God because we expect help. And we expect help because we know that He is a Helper of men. I always marvel at the magnanimity of this God who cannot be compelled to do anything and yet is willing to listen to our cry for help and move on our behalf. That’s why the psalmist exclaims ‘I cried to the Lord and He answered me, He delivered from all my fears’. We must not take these things for granted. Yes, indeed where will our help come from, our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Marvel at this powerful psalm below.
Psalm 121
1I lift my eyes toward the mountains.
Where will my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
your Protector will not slumber.
4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel
does not slumber or sleep.
5 The Lord protects you;
the Lord is a shelter right by your side.
6 The sun will not strike you by day
or the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all harm;
He will protect your life.
8 The Lord will protect your coming and going
both now and forever.
12) He is Merciful
We have looked at different dimensions of the character of God and we could lump them all together, but we will not get the full measure of the necessity of gratitude. We are grateful to God because He is merciful. It is His mercy, goodness, and love that made Him do all that He did to save us and reconcile us with Himself.
In His mercy, He chose not to discard us, but to make a way to forgive us. And when He forgave us, He chose to remember our sins no more. So wretched sinners as we were can now confidently relate to a perfect God without fear or terror. We should have been dead, He made us alive; because He is merciful. The Bible says that He is ‘slow to anger and quick to mercy. ‘
13) He is our Healer
One cannot say too much about this. One of the benefits recounted in Psalm 103 that we are enjoined not to forget is that He heals all our diseases. Furthermore, on the cross, Jesus carried our sins and also our diseases. We have seen tremendous healings in our ministry and are contending for more.
Recently, one person who had suffered from insomnia for thirty years was completely healed after one short prayer. She had never slept more than three hours a night. She had difficulty functioning on a day-to-day basis because of the sleeplessness. She would go out on the streets dressed in mismatched shoes and not notice until people began to stare at her on the streets. Work was nightmarish. But God healed her.
Many of us would be in the grave today had He not healed us. Many of us would not be able to stand today had He not healed us. Many of us would not even know our own names today had He not healed us. He heals all our diseases, and we have that confidence that no matter what kind of sickness or disease tries to come upon us, we have a Healer.
In the series Does God heal today? (click to watch the videos) I give ten reasons why we can believe God heals today. Yes, we thank Him because He is our healer.
14) He answers prayer
What would our lives be like if God did not answer prayer? What if He left us to slug it out here on earth and be trampled upon by circumstances and by the devil? What would it be like if we could not take refuge in God and had nowhere to turn when we are in trouble? We must be thankful that God answers prayers.
Sometimes we grumble because we have not received an answer to a petition and we forget that is grace that God answers any prayers at all because He owes us nothing. We owe Him everything. But He tenderly encourages us not to worry but to simply ask for His help.
Philippians 4:6-7 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
15) Everything
We have seen 14 different reasons why we should thank God and there are so many more. The inspired Apostle thus enjoined us to give thanks to God for everything, which says it all. Read the passage below.
Ephesians 5:19-20
19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have seen that Colossians 3.15 tells us to be thankful and to sing to God with gratitude in our hearts. But then it also says that all our lives must be lived for God, everything we do must be done in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to the Father. So every dimension of our lives must be lived in thanksgiving. This is supremely powerful. Read the passage below.
Colossians 3:15-17
15 And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
