Giving thanks is a learned behavior, even for Christians. All of us have been young. We’ve all been children. And you may recall the feeling when your parent said, “Well, what do you say?” And you’re trying to teach a child; they were trying to teach you how to say thank you. And that, of course, is very courteous, but for a child, saying thank you might be more of a command than it is a spirit of thanksgiving.
However, when we get older, life marches on, and we have experiences. We learn to be thankful for people who help us and for people who are there as individuals who can counsel us at opportune times. As Christians, we learn to give thanks because we study the Scripture and realize that it’s a spiritual discipline, really, giving thanks. Paul tried to warn us of that and command us of that when he said, “Give thanks in everything.”
To me, I’ve always looked at that verse as, “Wow, that is so huge.” But the best way perhaps for us to think about thanksgiving in that regard is to have a spirit of thankfulness in every circumstance of life, because we have a God who is worthy of our thanksgiving. I think if you give thanks, you also pray. When you’re prayerful, you can be thankful.
As we approach this Thanksgiving season, I want you to know that I’m very thankful for you as Alabama Baptists. I want to have many more times to tell you my heartfelt sense of thankfulness. I want to thank you for your dedication to fulfilling the Great Commission, the one mission we have, the Great Commission. Your commitment to the one program we have, the Cooperative Program, and also for the many ministries we call Great Commission ministries, the local church and beyond. Thank you for that.
And my heart of thanksgiving right now is even more intensified as I think about all the things the Lord has done in the past, giving him all the glory and honor. I realize in my own mind I wouldn’t have wanted to do any of that without you. Thank you, Alabama Baptists.
