Sumter Pastor Joey Durham: Give your thanks to God for all you have

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I and our church family would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you will have a great time with your families during this holiday. The Thanksgiving thought on my heart is, "It is Good to Give Thanks." My Scripture text is Psalm 92:1, where we read these inspired words, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High." (KJV)

Today, many are filled with fear over what they see happening in our nation and around the world. The God of Heaven has brought us safely through many dark days, and we certainly do not know what lies ahead, but God's Word is still true despite anything that the enemy of our soul might bring against us.

Here, the Psalmist is saying that it is indeed fitting to give thanks to God because of the great and wonderful blessings that He has graciously given to each of us. The fact of the matter is the blessings we enjoy are "gracious" because we do not deserve one of them. God is graciously good to everyone, saved and unsaved alike. Why should there be universal thanks willingly directed to the God of Heaven? I believe the first reason would be that He commands us to do it. In Psalm 136:1-3, the Word of God issues a direct command, as we see, "O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever." (KJV)

Here in this Psalm, the Psalmist thanks God in verse 23 for remembering him "in his low estate," in that God knew he was an undeserving sinner but loved him anyway. Every person can thank God for that same "loving look" that comes our way in grace and mercy to save our souls. He thanks God in verse 24 for deliverance from Israel's enemies. There is no doubt that we owe the existence of our great nation, America, to the merciful hand of Almighty God. In our nation's existence, God has miraculously delivered us from enemies within and from enemies beyond our shores. He also thanks God in verse 25 for the food he received. Please know that, not only the food at your Thanksgiving feast, but the food every day of every year in your life has come from the good hand of God. Our ability and strength to walk, talk, feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, to be able to think and make decisions, to be able to learn and obtain the ability to have a career, to have a roof over our head, automobiles to drive and so much more is because of the great goodness of the God of Heaven. So it is a "good" or "fitting" thing to give thanks to God!

Joey Durham is pastor at Open Bible Baptist Church at 180 Old Manning Road in Sumter. You can contact Pastor Durham at durham.joey@yahoo.com or call the church office at (803) 481-9315.