{"id":28447,"date":"2015-11-04T00:20:05","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T05:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=28447"},"modified":"2015-11-04T00:11:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T05:11:15","slug":"reasons-to-give-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/04\/reasons-to-give-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to Give Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Every day throughout November, we\u2019ll bring you a \u00a0devotional focused on giving thanks, gratitude, or giving of ourselves. We welcome you to check in each day and give thanks along with us!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; <\/span>
\nHis faithful love endures forever. <\/span>
\nLet Israel say, \u201cHis faithful love endures forever.<\/span>
\nPsalms 118:1-2 HCSB<\/span><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u00a0\u271e \u00a0 \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Hallelujah!
\nGive thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
\nHis faithful love endures forever.
\nPsalm 106:1 HCSB<\/p>\n

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
\nHis faithful love endures forever.
\nPsalm 107:1 HCSB<\/p>\n

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
\nHis faithful love endures forever.
\nPsalm 118:29 HCSB<\/p>\n

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.
\nHis love is eternal.
\nPsalm 136:1<\/p>\n

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
\nHis faithful love endures forever.
\n1 Chronicles 16:34 HCSB<\/p>\n

Repetition, in the Bible, emphasizes the importance of the statement. Psalm 118:1 must be really important since it is repeated almost verbatim at least 6 times. \u00a0I love how this verse creates a question and<\/em> <\/strong>supplies the answer.<\/p>\n

\n

Give thanks to the Lord.
\nWhy\u00a0<\/em>?
\nFor He is good.
\nWhy<\/em> ?
\nHis faithful love endures forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am sitting in a room in a skilled nursing facility as I am writing this, and thinking about the frailty of life and the finality of death. \u00a0Yet, looking at these verses, I am reminded that death is not final. God’s love endures forever<\/em><\/span><\/strong>. \u00a0His loves for us is eternal. \u00a0So much so that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 NKJV<\/p>\n

As I was researching Psalm 118:1, I came across this quote from Matthew Henry:<\/p>\n

“The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God’s goodness,\u00a0the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Praising God and thanking God reminds us of His goodness thus making us more willing to be obedient to Him. \u00a0I really want to be more obedient to God. \u00a0But sometimes I find it hard to gives thanks. \u00a0I get caught up in life. \u00a0What I need to remember is that circumstances do not determine my reasons for giving thanks. \u00a0My reasons for giving thanks is summed up in John 3:16 (God so loved that He gave) and \u00a0Psalm 118:1 (He is good). \u00a0Goodness is part of God’s character, it is what He is. \u00a0His love is faithful, enduring, and eternal. And those are the only reasons I need.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u00a0\u271e \u00a0 \u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

So I will give thanks to You, Lord, for You ARE good and Your love does endure forever.
\nAMEN – it is so!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day throughout November, we\u2019ll bring you a \u00a0devotional focused on giving thanks, gratitude, or giving of ourselves. We welcome you to check in each day and give thanks along with us! Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. Let Israel say, \u201cHis faithful love endures forever. Psalms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":22736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[5889,3367,1287,425,6339,566,9625,3174,9618],"class_list":["post-28447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-give-thanks-to-the-lord","tag-john-316","tag-psalm-1181-2","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-thanksgiving-devotions","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/seekingHimthanksgivinggraphic.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-7oP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28447"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28452,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28447\/revisions\/28452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}