God is Good

     A little over a week from today, we'll all sit around a table filled with more food than we probably should consume in a day to celebrate a national holiday designed to focus our attention on the goodness of God to us over the previous year.

     I thought I'd spend the next couple of posts talking a little about thanksgiving; not the holiday, but the attitude.  Thanksgiving always begins with a foundation of some sort.  For many people, thankfulness is directly connected to possessions and provisions.  When I have enough to pay the bills and some left over to have some nice things; I am thankful.  If, on the other hand, I am struggling month to month or I seem to have less than someone else that I am observing, then my thankfulness drops and I begin to be frustrated with something that is missing from my life.

     When I approach thanksgiving from a different vantage point, I start to understand something very important.  Thanksgiving is not about me and is not, at its foundation, about what I have.  That comes later.  A good foundation for thanksgiving is a focus on God.  When little children learn one of the early "food prayers" they often say "God is great; God is good and we thank him for this food."  That's actually a pretty theologically astute prayer.  The little conjunction "and" in the middle of the sentence is very important.  We are thankful for who God is.  In addition to that ("and"), we are also thankful for what he has given to us.

     So what's a good verse to get us going in our spirit of thankfulness?  I recommend this one: "You are good and do good." (Psalm 119:68).  Those are the words of David to God in the context of asking for good judgment and knowledge.  Notice the "and" again.

     I'd suggest, to begin setting ourselves up for a fruitful week or two of thanksgiving, that we start with a focus on the goodness of God.  Perhaps it would be valuable for you to sit down and write out a list of the things about God that you are thankful for.  Reflect on who he is for this exercise, not on what he has done for you.  We can work on that together with a later post.  It is sometimes hard to separate the who from the what, but try to give your attention to the nature and attributes of God that stand out to you. Spend some time reading the Psalms.  That's always a good primer on the goodness of God.  As you begin to remember just how wonderful your Heavenly Father is, let that lead to some reflection on the fact that he sacrificed his one and only son so that you could have a relationship with him.  "How great  is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1).

     Maybe it would be beneficial to others who are reading here if you would share something about God that you are thankful for.  Feel free to comment...