Message for December 1, 2019 from Pastor Jerry

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.” Psalm 100:2(NKJV)

     We have just finished the Thanksgiving Holiday season so we are going to think a little about thanksgiving.  It is awesome how much the Word of God has to say about the subject. There are hundreds of Scriptures that admonish us to be thankful.  The thing I want to examine is the extent of thanksgiving.

     Sadly enough, the Word doesn’t tell us to be thankful only when things are going to suit us.  There is no time given for us to be unthankful even when things are going bad. The problem is our limited view of what we are to be thankful for.

     I have heard people say, “What do I have to be thankful for?”  With this attitude a person perceives everything around them as negative.  When this happens we have a choice to do something about. We all have the ability to change if we decide to do so.  Children are limited to change because they are at the mercy of their parents but with outside influences like church or school they can be presented with positive choices.

     The key to being thankful is to expand your view of things that we should be thankful for.  The greatest of these lay in our view of the goodness of God and His everlasting love for all of us.  To realize this makes it possible to be thankful.