Thanksgiving season is upon us. Our church had an early Thanksgiving dinner, fellowship and praise service this year. You may likely be involved in similar events over the next few weeks. You may have a time of sharing thanks around the table on Thanksgiving day. It’s a good thing when we are primed in advance to give thanks for all the good things that God has done in our lives, how He has provided for our needs, and how He has saved us through His son Jesus Christ. These are the typical testimonies I commonly hear from people during this season. When we aren’t primed for thankfulness, we can often be caught off guard when asked what God has done for us. I try to start off most of our Wednesday night prayer times with opening questions like, “What has God done for you this week? Who has a testimony of something you can praise God for in your life?” As most people come ready to share their prayer requests and discuss their needs, they aren’t always ready to answer that question. It catches us off guard.
While we should always be ready to share something about God’s goodness in our lives, perhaps it is hard for us to come up with something off the cuff because we are trying to think of the things that God has given us. We tend to dwell on our needs and the negative aspects of life. Many times we move through our day from one discouraging circumstance to another – and we tend to dwell on these things. When in this mental state, it can be hard to find reasons for praising Him. However, in your quest to be more thankful this year, a suggestion I have is to think about not only the things you DO have from God, but also the things you DON’T have from God. Many times in Scripture we are reminded that we give thanks to God “for His mercy endureth forever”. How have you benefited from God’s mercy in your life? What has He spared you from? What accident did you avoid in your car? What arguments and broken relationships has He preserved from you? What heartaches has he kept from occurring in your life? What disease did you never have to endure? What kind of suffering did you not have to face? What poverty or war or distress do you have no knowledge of in your life? These are all examples of God’s mercy in action. It’s not just mercy that saves you or gets you out of a mess that you’re in – it is God’s mercy that keeps you unaware and out of touch with the real struggles that others in this world are facing each day. When we think about all of the harsh realities of life that we have been spared from each day, it will give us reason to be thankful for what we don’t have.
In that vein of thought, let me give you some things that I’m thankful I don’t have – where I can praise God and be thankful for his mercy in my life:
• I’m thankful that I’ve never been homeless• I’m thankful that I’ve never had to go without food
• I’m thankful I don’t have a broken marriage and family
• I’m thankful I don’t have any life-threatening disease or injury
• I’m thankful I don’t have to live in a war-torn country like Israel or Ukraine
• I’m thankful I don’t have to face government persecution when I live for Christ
• I’m thankful that my salvation doesn’t depend on me
So, I encourage you this Thanksgiving season, if you are having a hard time finding blessings to count in your life – think about what you are thankful that you DON’T have. It is only by God’s mercy that you have been spared the hardships which many others around the world endure every day. God is good all the time. We need to develop a spirit of thankfulness so that whether is something we HAVE or something we DON’T HAVE, we are ready to give God the glory on a moment’s notice!