ThanksLiving: A Thanksgiving Reading PlanSample

As you finish this short reading plan on thanksgiving, I encourage you to continue your commitment to cultivating a spirit of gratitude. A sure cure for ungratefulness, erroneous thinking, and even discouragement lies in counting your blessings. For one month, I invite you to write out two or three blessings a day. You will be overwhelmed by the realization of unmerited favor. 

Here are some biblical categories under which you can list your blessings:  

• Spiritual blessing (Col. 1:12—for divine inheritance; 2 Cor. 9:15—for the Son; Eph. 5:20—for every spiritual blessing (cf. Eph. 1-3); 2 Cor. 2:14—for continuous spiritual triumph)  
• Physical provision (Deut. 8:10; Psalm 103:1-3; John 6:11)  
• Relational resolution (Col. 3:15)  
• Daily sustenance (Psalm 68:19)  
• Service opportunities and fruit (1 Cor. 1:14-15; 1 Tim. 1:12; Acts 28:15; 1 Thess. 3:9).  
• Any circumstance (1 Thess. 5:18)

If you have been looking for God’s will for your life, Paul’s imperative on thanksgiving is comprehensive and continuous: “Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you who belong to the Lord Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18).

Thanksgiving goes beyond the circumstantial and temporary to the spiritual and eternal. Consequently, no matter what happens you can thank God for eternal and internal blessings (Eph. 5:20) in any temporary circumstance (1 Thess. 5:18).

Year-round, life-long thanksgiving, then, can be called thanksliving. “Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all He has done” (Col. 2:7). Thanksliving comprises thanksfeeling, thankssaying, and thanksdoing.

We have a choice between hostile dependence and grateful dependence on God—our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We don’t just move on from Thanksgiving to Christmas. That’s simply a calendar view of existence (that may even feed our greed). After Thanksgiving comes more thanksgiving—a Christian view of life. We continually offer our gratitude to God, the Creator and Giver of all good gifts (1 Tim. 4:4; 6:17). Let’s thank God for all we have and trust Him for all we need. Will you join me in launching a new way of thanksgiving—thanksliving?