Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Let’s continue our Thanksgiving for the LORD being good and good to us, but making it an all day every day affair.

Today’s scripture testimony, 1 Chronicles 23:30 (NLT) says…
[30] And each morning and evening they stood before the Lord to sing songs of thanks and praise to him.

Consider…
I hope that everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful day.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it’s name describes what we should spend the day doing, giving thanks.

This week we’ve highlighted what the Psalmist have adjured us to do, like Psalms 107:1 (NLT)…
[1] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

But as I spent the day reflecting on the goodness of God being grateful for all He’s done in my life, it occurred to me that my gratitude shouldn’t be stored up throughout the year to be expressed on a holiday.

In fact Psalms 92:1-2 (NLT) says…
[1] It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. [2] It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening,

Notice the Psalmist is telling us that praising God should be an all day activity.

That’s exactly what Psalms 44:8 (NLT) emphasizes…
[8] O God, we give glory to you all day long and constantly praise your name.

That’s what prompted today’s title, Thanksgiving Days is about spending entire days thanking God for being good and good to us.

You see God wants us to recognize His goodness daily. The Holy Spirit led me to Exodus 16:4-5 (NLT) as an example…
[4] Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. [5] On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

Perhaps Jesus remembered this scripture when He told us in Matthew 6:11 (NLT)
to pray…
[11] Give us today the food we need,

The LORD doesn’t want us to take His daily provision for granted. That’s why thanking Him throughout the day helps us recognize all He’s does as we experience it.

But the Holy Spirit didn’t stop with God as our Provider, He wants us to also recognize His continual presence throughout the day. The example that I was given is Exodus 13:21-22 (NLT)…
[21] The LORD went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. [22] And the LORD did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.

While it’s easy to dismiss scriptures like these as irrelevant old testament stories, it reminds me of the saying…

“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”

You see, it is my belief the biggest reason the Children of Israel, and do we, struggle is because they failed to live with an attitude of gratitude.

Despite the faithfulness and loving kindness of God that He lavished on them every day, they spent more time murmuring and complaining than thanking and proclaiming.

The reason I believe they did, was because they failed to see God in the present due to reminiscing about the past or hoping for the future.

That reminds me of the quote…

“We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and the fear of tomorrow”. I would add their two equal dangerous twins, nostalgia of the ‘good old days’ and anticipation of ‘better days ahead’.

AI broke the quote down as follows…

The thief of yesterday: This is regret over past mistakes or missed opportunities that prevents you from living in the present.

The thief of tomorrow: This is worry about future events that you cannot control.

The stolen present: The combination of these two “thieves” distracts from and spoils the current moment, which is the only time you truly have.

A key idea: The phrase highlights that “today” is a gift, and you should focus on it instead of letting past failures or future anxieties rob you of your present peace

That makes me hear Jesus saying in Matthew 6:31-32, 34 NLT
[31] “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ [32] These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
[34] “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

You see, God wants us to concentrate on, and appreciate what He’s doing now rather than languishing in yesterday or straining for tomorrow.

This pivots me to the other idea of Thanksgiving Days, which is inspired from Psalms 90:12 (NKJV) which says…
[12] So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Every day matters, because yesterday’s gone and tomorrow’s not promised.

James 4:13-15 (NLT) admonishes…
[13] Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” [14] How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. [15] What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

When we fail to operate with the Psalms 118:24 (NLT) attitude…
[24] This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

…we miss out on seeing God’s daily reminder of goodness and unfailing love.

Daily reminders of who and how God is are why I believe the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Jeremiah to write Lamentations 3:22-23 (NLT)…
[22] The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. [23] Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

And I also believe the same Holy Spirit inspired Koryn Hawthorne to proclaim…

Look at God, look at God, He’s making a way
Look at God, look at God, every day, yeah
Look at God, look at God, I can’t take no credit
He’s the one who did it
Look at God, oh, look at God

You see, God wants to hear and see our gratitude every day. Hr wants us to echo Psalms 59:16 (NLT), which testifies…
[16] But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress.

Before I close, the Holy Spirit gave me a new testament scripture to emphasize God’s desire for a daily attitude of gratitude. Luke 17:11-19 (NLT) says…
[11] As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. [12] As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, [13] crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” [14] He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. [15] One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” [16] He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. [17] Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? [18] Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” [19] And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

Although there is no reference to daily gratitude, there is a clear expectation expressed by Jesus that He wants us to acknowledge what He has done for immediately and respond with thanks accordingly. Notice, 10 were cleansed, but only the one who recognized and acknowledged what the LORD had done, and gave thanks was completely healed!

That leads me to the final thought on daily thanksgiving found in Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)…
[6] Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. [7] Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Notice, between prayer and God’s peace is giving thanks for what God has done. An additional hidden gem about thanking God is that it’s for what He has done. Here’s the blessing, God has already done what He planned to do, we’re just discovering it daily.

We thank Him because He’s just going to allow us to see His goodness and unfailing enduring love.

So make sure you spend all day, every day thanking God for being and doing good.

Let’s heed Maverick City’s exhortation that says…

And let there never be a day
That I don’t rise to bring You
Praise, hallelujah (Hallelujah, hallelujah)

Be praised
Be praised
Be praised (King Jesus)
Be praised (Forever)
Be praised
Be praised (Forever)
Forever and always

Today’s song is…
Every Day Is Thanksgiving

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)