Thanksgiving Family Devotion by Jess Davis

We wanted to post something you could use around your table with your family, or in your own devotional time today. We appreciate Jess Davis taking the time to write this for us. God bless, and be thankful.

If we were to go around any table in the country today and listen to families sharing what they’re thankful for, it is likely we would hear many of the same several blessings over and over again–and for good reason. We’re thankful for our families, our homes, our jobs, our churches, our friends. Many of us are blessed with more than enough clothing, food, and a warm place to sleep. Every year, when that ever-popular Thanksgiving question comes up–What are you thankful for?–these gifts from God are at the top of our list.

And we should be thankful for these things. They are good gifts, and every good gift comes directly from the hand of God; we should set aside special time to thank Him.

But it’s also good to set aside special time to dig in a little deeper.

Author Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth writes in her book, Choosing Gratitude, that “gratitude is the attitude of the heart that recognizes the goodness of God.” It is our ability to look around us and see the goodness of God that fuels a true, genuine heart of gratitude. Psalm 107:1 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” Again, it’s when we are able to more readily see God’s goodness that we’re moved to give Him real thanks.
But the truth is, before we were ever blessed with our current home, our families, friends, jobs, or the food on our Thanksgiving tables–we were already sitting on mounds upon mounds of God’s goodness to us and to all of humanity
throughout all of time.

Consider for a moment, going all the way back to the beginning–before the beginning even–to eternity past. There, the Triune God–the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit–existed in perfect community. The three persons of the Trinity delighted in one another, had fellowship, loved one another joyfully and perfectly, and God was completely self-sufficient. He didn’t need anything or anyone else.

But then He chose to create the world.

That He did that at all is incomprehensible goodness.

We forget often, as we walk this earth and soak up its sun, breathe in its air, drink its water and interact with its many, fearfully, wonderfully made creatures, that God didn’t have to do this.

But then we might consider, as Bible teacher Jen Wilkin puts it, “He could have made a much duller creation….[A world] that just did ‘the job.’” It’s one thing that God chose to make this world when He didn’t “need” to–it is a whole other thing that He chose to make it so breathtakingly beautiful.

When we look at His goodness through this lens–a less entitled lens perhaps–suddenly things like colors, fragrances, laughter, musical notes, and tastes seem like over-the-top extravagance. He could have made a whole world that carried out His will and purposes without ever giving us shimmering lights, sunrises, ocean waves, or four hundred thousand different species of blooming flowers.

And then He made us.

Did you know that by the time a baby is born God has already created 100 trillion cells inside their body? Acts 17:28 tells us that “In him we live and move and have our being.” This means every single one of those cells is created and sustained every single moment by God Himself.

This goodness alone is shocking.
By the time we leave our mother’s womb, God has already lavished such impossible, incomprehensible goodness upon us that we could never be able to thank Him for it; we’d run out of time and we’d run out of breath. In fact–if you do the math:
If we were to attempt to tell God “thank you” for each of the cells He created in our body before we were ever even born…It would take us 4,079 years.

God has been good to us in His creation of humanity.

On top of all that, God has been good to us in that He revealed Himself to us in His Word,
preserved His Word, promised us a Savior in His Word, then sent us that Savior.
He’s been good to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the full forgiveness of our sins, the path He’s given us to life with Him now, and resurrection from the dead later.

He is good to us in the hope of Heaven, the gift of the church, and the invitation to build His kingdom,
and He is so over-the-top, extravagantly kind and good,
that after even all of that, He also promises us that when we see Him in eternity, He will turn around and reward us for kingdom work we did in His name.

The phrase “God is good” should shake us.
His goodness should move our hearts to thank Him, today and every day.

This Thanksgiving, take a little time to think of ways God has been good in each of the categories below–perhaps in ways we sometimes overlook.

1. What are some ways God has been good to us in His creation that we don’t stop and think about as often?
2. List some of the incredible ways God has been good to us in the creation and sustaining of the human body. What miracles does He perform every day in simply keeping us alive?
3. How has God been good in revealing Himself to us His Word? What are some of the most precious things He has revealed to you in the Scriptures? What would your life be like if He had not made those things known? How would your life be different if there was no way to find the truths we find in the Bible?
4. How is God good to us in Jesus? There will be a few answers that easily come to mind; stretch a little bit today and try to go over and beyond those answers–there are many more to list than we sometimes take the time to recognize
5. How has God used His church to be a special avenue of goodness in your life?