Is Thanksgiving Enough?

Are you one of those people who are always reminding other people (especially if you hear them complaining) that they have so much to be thankful for? If you’re not, you probably know someone like that and you’ve heard them say it many times.

Well I’m one of those people, only I take it even further because I believe being thankful is just the first step in a wonderful process that can draw us closer to God and to others. Let me explain.

How many times have you said ‘thank you’ to complete strangers? A waitress, a salesclerk, someone who held the door open for you, etc? Saying your thank yous in these situations is polite and thoughtful, but I don’t think it’s the level of thanksgiving that we should be giving to God and to those close to us. The kind of thankfulness that we are meant to give to God and to those we love goes deeper and has a greater purpose than those brief verbal gestures of gratitude.

Psalms 100:1 says, “Enter his (God’s) gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”

In this verse, the Psalmist lets us know that when we first approach God, we should do it with thanksgiving. He goes on to say that praise comes after. If you look at verse 2, you’ll discover that the goal when coming to God is to get to worship. So three steps, thanksgiving, praise and then worship.

When I first learned this and started doing it, it seemed very staged. “Thank you God for everything, I praise you because you’re great and I bow before you and worship you because you are worthy.” Of course each stage would take me a little longer to get through but you see my point.

Then one day while I was laboring through this process with God, something clicked and I finally got it. God wants a personal relationship with us, not a robotic three stage approach-dance. How we relate to him, needs to be viewed with that in mind.

I started to understand that God created all relational principles. Often the same principles that apply to our relationship with him, apply to our relationship with others (the principles of forgiveness and mercy being two prime examples).

Let’s look at the simple meanings of the three above words and why they run in progression.

• Thankfulness: being thankful and thanking God specifically for things he has done for you (which leads to);
• Praise: saying wonderful things about who God is because of what he’s done (which leads to);
• Worship: seeking to be closer to God and give more of yourself to him because of how amazing he is and the wonderful things he does.

When you understand what the three words mean and how they relate, you can leave the robotics behind. Now at church or in my own quiet time, I start by thanking God for all of the wonderful stuff he’s done for me and has given me. That automatically leads me into thinking about and telling him how wonderful and faithful and loving he is. After focusing on that, I’m automatically taken to a place where I want to get closer to, and give myself more, to my loving, caring and generous Heavenly Father. I express that to him because he’s so great and has given so much.

It doesn’t have to happen in big stages either. It can be topical like this, “Thank you God for answering my prayer. I really didn’t know what I was going to do, but you worked it out so perfectly! You really are wonderful, kind and faithful! I was a little fretful about this to start with and I didn’t need to be. Help me to know you better and trust you more.” Thankfulness, praise and worship.

The three flow naturally from one to the next, and back to the beginning again, strengthening our relationship with God. As we draw closer to him and trust him more, he gets even more involved in our lives and we have more to be thankful for.

As I mentioned earlier, the same principle or three step process works in our relationships with others. We of course don’t worship people, so replace the word ‘worship’ with the word ‘give.’ When someone close to you does something for you, be sure to stop and thank them, but don’t cut the process short. After thanking them, sincerely compliment and praise them by pointing out how thoughtful or generous they are for doing what they did. After they’ve responded, move on to giving of yourself. Find a simple way to offer them something, express your desire to get to know them better, to spend more time with them, or even just offer to return the favor.

If you make a consistent habit of moving beyond thankfulness to the next two steps, you will start to see the relationships in your life, with God and others, grow deeper and more meaningful. One important caveat here, I’m not talking about flattery or being insincere. Be sure to keep your thankfulness, praise and offers to give of yourself, honest and sincere. It may start out small, but if you repeat the cycle and the other person responds, the relationship will grow.

What I realize now is that I used to stop at ‘thank you’ with God (despite my efforts at three step robotics) and with others. This wasn’t much different than the way I expressed my thankfulness to total strangers who work in retail. It was nice, but it didn’t grow my relationships.

Move beyond Thanksgiving and try this today with God and those you love. I’m sure like myself, you’ll be amazed at the results. And if you’re one of those people who remind others to be thankful, keep it up but also help them move past thanksgiving.