When You Don’t Feel Thankful

As we approach Thanksgiving, some of you anticipate the day with joy, happy at the idea of getting together with family, feasting on turkey, and remembering the blessings of the past year.

But others of you experience a sense of dread as the day draws near. Monumental problems in your life crowd out any sense of joy. Blessings seem a distant memory – a fantasy of days gone by. With Thanksgiving day drawing near, you’re not sure you have anything to be thankful for.

I remember such a time when my marriage was collapsing around me. My husband and I were separated. Confusion and fear gripped my heart and I had no idea what the future held. It was hard to be thankful.

During this difficult time in my life, however, I discovered an amazing irony. While I often did not feel thankful because of my painful circumstances, I found that when I let go of my pain and confusion to raise my eyes toward Heaven and simply thank God for being my Lord and Father, my heart grew lighter and I felt at peace.

As I magnified God through my praise, the debris of doubt and fear cleared from my mind and my perspective changed. God appeared larger and I became more aware of His awesome power and majesty. As a result, my painful circumstances seemed less weighty and prominent. I saw only God, only His love, only His comforting presence. Thanking and praising God was a salve to my aching heart. In the midst of praise I knew I would be alright.

The irony I discovered is that thanking God—when it seemed I had nothing to be thankful for—actually gave me something to be thankful for.

Psalm 100:4 tells us to “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

In other words, it is when we are thankful–when we praise His name—that we can enter into the very presence of God. And when we do, we find that His majesty and power is greater than any problem we encounter. In the light of His almighty presence and power, the darkness in our lives grows pale.

When we thank God and praise Him, we open a window into Heaven through which God smiles down upon us and surrounds us with His presence. The opportunity to be thankful and lift our praise to God is an inexplicably beautiful gift God has given us, a gift that brings us into His presence and lifts our hearts out of the surrounding circumstances of our lives. Praising God and thanking Him brings us into His courts where God’s glory outshines the tinsel and washes away the dross of the world around us.

Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”

If you are having trouble feeling thankful, when you wake up on Thanksgiving day begin by praising God. Thank Him for His love, which never ceases. Thank Him for being a big God that nothing can defeat. Thank Him that you have the incredible privilege of coming before the God of the universe and offering up your heart. When you do, He will pour His strength into your weakness. He will fill your heart with Himself and the forever love He has for you. Not only will you find you do have something to be thankful for, but with the tenderness of God’s presence so near, you might find this Thanksgiving to be more meaningful than ever before.

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11).

“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. . . . Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:1-2, 6).