THANKFULNESS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 50.

The truly thankful to God will be thankful all the time. His thankfulness will not find expression merely for a moment, or an hour, or a day; it will be a perennial plant, ever blooming, ever bearing fruit, ever striking more deeply its roots into the great subsoil of the constant recognition of God’s goodness and unvarying bountifulness. “What shall I render unto Jehovah for all His benefits toward me?” should be the constant heart-question of those who are daily, hourly, momently receiving His blessings. The inspired answer implies the same constancy on the part of the receiver: “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of Jehovah. I will pay my vows unto Jehovah, yea, in the presence of all His people.” “In everything give thanks,” writes the apostle Paul; “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

The thankful person will be a doer. The thankful Christian will endeavor to please Christ, to seek out God’s will that he may do it; neither will he do this that he may pay God for His rich bountifulness. That can not be done. The Christian will appreciate the great fact that he owes all to God, and that the most and best that he can do is but a token, an expression, of thanksgiving to the great Giver of all.

Then, fellow pilgrim, let us ever recognize God’s goodness, and make each day a day of thanksgiving; “giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”