On This Thanksgiving - Psalm 65:9

You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, for so You have prepared it. - Psalm 65:9

    In this day and age, we find ourselves too often dealing with a “double difficulty.” We find it difficult to be grateful and we find it doubly difficult to refrain from complaining. What we really and fervently need to do is step back and take stock of all we have to be grateful for and all we have to praise God for. “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” - Psalm 68:19.
    When we realize all we have to be grateful for, it should silence our complaints and dry up our self-indulgent tears. Our hearts should be bursting with a gratitude and thankfulness that shines forth like the morning sun! We should echo the Psalmist when he declares - “Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious.” - Psalm 66:1-2.
    And there is very good reason to praise God for all His providence, for without Him we would have nothing! “Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us.” - Psalm 67:5-6.
    As the year draws near its end there will be those who cast aspersions upon God’s holy name. They will decry events that have taken place over the past year, pointing their crooked fingers at the glorious One Who grants them their very lives, Who gives and takes away in His time . . . not ours. Yet they forget the common grace and daily providence which we all share.
“You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.” - Psalm 65:11.
    And sadly, in far too many cases there will be people who fail to recognize that even our very breath comes to us from God! If not God then who or what keeps us alive, breathing, and prospering? Chance? Mere chance?!  “ . . . because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”- Romans 1:21.
     Unlike those poor folks, I believe there is a guiding hand that gives me direction as well as my physical and spiritual needs. And that hand belongs to God almighty! My life is not a daily roll of the dice nor is it a lottery ticket. My life, my existence . . . and yours has been ordained by God from before the beginning of time, not by the shifting winds of fortune. It is God who granted me the family I came from, the family I have, the wife I have been blessed with, the children and grandchildren I am exalted enough to call my own, my education, my faith,  my job, my home, and my friends. Everything I have ever had, have now, or ever will have is evidence of the providence of God.
    We need to thank God every day for our education, skill sets, physical endowments and all those attributes we rely on to carry us through our lives. We need to thank Him again when things don’t turn out the way we may have planned for the lessons we can learn from those tribulations!             
      “ . . . in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Let us be thankful as the Psalmist was thankful! “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” - Psalm 104:33.
    Father, do not hold our weaknesses and iniquities against us. Grant us grateful and praise-filled hearts on this Thanksgiving Day, in Christ’s holy name.