-
3 Ways to be Thankful in a Thankless Culture
One of the hallmarks of a degenerate society is the lack of thankfulness. This makes sense since giving thanks is an acknowledgment of God’s praiseworthiness and His goodness. Therefore, those who reject God are marked by a refusal to give thanks to God (cf. Rom 1:21). In contrast to thankless unbelievers, Christians are to be marked by constantly being thankful (Phil 4:6; 1 Tim 4:4). Thus, in honor of American Thanksgiving (sorry Canada), I want to give a few practical ways to promote a thankful heart during this season. Here are three practical ways you can stimulate thankfulness in your heart. Focus on what you deserve. This should be the ultimate prompt for Christians. As Christians, we are recipients of a thing called grace. We deserve hell and eternal damnation. We deserve nothing good, only judgment for rebelling against the Creator. Thus, how much do we have to be thankful…
-
Thanksgiving: the Atheist’s Least Favorite Holiday
The Thanksgiving season is one of my favorite times of the year. There is just something about the weather, the excitement, and the theology behind the holiday that attracts me. The whole idea behind Thanksgiving is intrinsically biblical. We are all used to Thanksgiving as the title for our American holiday, but it is also a noun which refers to the act of giving thanks. The whole reason Thanksgiving is so named is because it is to be a special time reserved for giving thanks. (Although, I will say the advent of Black Friday really kind of cheapens the whole idea thanksgiving). Biblically, although the New Testament only directly commands thanksgiving in one place (1 Thess 5:18), that does not mean it is unimportant. Paul constantly practices thanksgiving, most often thanking God for fellow believers and their faithfulness (Rom 1:8; 1 Cor 1:4, 14; Eph 1:16; Phil 1:3; Col 1:3,…