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Many people entertain only vague notions about giving thanks, just as they do about faith.
They confuse faith with optimism, will power, presumption, imagination, and all sorts of other things. A doctor tells his patient that but for his faith, he never would have come through his illness. Somehow the patient was “just sure” he would recover. A smiling mother encourages her married daughter to “have faith, that everything will turn out all right.” But faith in God is believing God; believing what He has said. True faith is based on the written Word of God (See Rom. 10:17).
But unregenerate men have vague ideas about thanksgiving. A man escapes some great harm and thanks his “lucky stars.” Another says: “I’m grateful for a healthy body,” but to whom is he grateful? He doesn’t say. In many cases it doesn’t even occur to him to ask. He’s “just thankful”!
How refreshing, then, it is to open our Bibles, especially to the Epistles of Paul, the chief of sinners, saved by grace, and to see him giving thanks for specific blessings, and to a specific Person — God!
“Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet [fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:12,13).
“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” (II Cor. 9:15).
“Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory!” (I Car. 15:57).
“Thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph!” (II Cor. 2:14).
It is our prayer for all our readers that you may be especially thankful for “the gift of God [which] is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). source
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