Anyone that wants to enjoy free, uninhibited access to God’s presence must make thanksgiving a lifestyle. Thanksgiving is not a once-a-month event. Thanksgiving isn’t something you do only when you have a breakthrough or answers to your prayers. In good times and bad times, when things are going well and everything seems to be going haywire, thanksgiving should proceed from our lips. In every circumstance of life, there’s always something to be thankful for.
Our lifestyle revolves around our daily habits and routines, how we respond and cope with the pressures of life, our interests, choices, values, and beliefs. In Psalm 34:1, David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” In Psalm 119:164, David said, “Seven times a day I praise You; because of Your righteous judgments.” And in Psalm 103:1-5, David reminded himself of God’s benefits and gave praise and thanks for blessings God had bestowed on him.
It’s safe to say that David had a lifestyle of thanksgiving because David incorporated praise, worship, and thanksgiving into his daily routine. Thanksgiving is a choice. It’s not something you do by coercion or compulsion. David chose to live a life of praise and thanksgiving, irrespective of the situation he found himself in. God inhabited David’s praises, David experienced the fullness of joy that is in God’s presence, and God kept making David greater and greater.
The default mode of the Israelites, on the other hand, was a recurring attitude of murmuring, grumbling, and complaining. It was like their mind had been automatically set to respond to any situation with grumbling and complaining.
For example, in Numbers 20:1-8, there was a problem. They needed water, and there was no water in sight. They started whining, complaining, and protesting against Moses’ leadership. The same people who had been going through years of slavery and severe suffering in Egypt told Moses that it would have been better if he had left them in Egypt. The same people God did amazing wonders for, like the world has never seen before, to rescue and deliver them from the yoke and captivity of Egypt, said it would have been better if they had been left in Egypt. Repeatedly, the Israelites demonstrated an attitude of ingratitude towards God. They had a tendency to forget the goodness of God and just focus on what they didn’t have.
Like the Israelites, it’s so easy to whine, grumble, and complain when there’s a problem or pressing need and you can’t see a solution or way out. At such times, we can forget and lose sight of God’s past goodness to us and focus on what we don’t have, what we’re going through. It won’t always be easy to give thanks when there’s a need that hasn’t been met, a major problem staring you in the face, or a long-standing issue that has remained unresolved despite months and years of praying and fasting about this issue. But it is in moments like this that God wants us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). Faith is activated as we focus on what God has done before, what God is capable of doing. Peace replaces worry as we give God thanks (Lamentations 3:21-24, Philippians 4:6-7).
But when we focus on our needs, problems, inability, and limitations, doubt, fear, and discouragement clog our hearts and minds. Negativity begins to set in; we get bitter at life and people, and before you know what’s happening, we’re murmuring and complaining about everything and everyone, including God.
Even if your “Lazarus” has been dead for four days; you’re faced with a hopeless situation; you can still give God thanks. This was what Jesus did, and a man who had been certified dead came back to life. Thanksgiving can turn hopeless situations around; thanksgiving can activate the miracle-working power of God. Thanksgiving can multiply five loaves and two small fish; thanksgiving can multiply and increase your resources (John 6:5-13).
So, let the rule of your life be to thank God for what He has done, what He is doing, what He is yet to do, and what He chooses not to do. That way, no devil, demon, or situation can rob you of your joy and blessings.
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