2 Simple Ways to Give Thanks Daily
Thanksgiving is a word packed with emotion, memories, and anticipation. Giving thanks involves both thankfulness and blessing, but what do they mean? Find out how you can focus on things to be grateful for and how you can bless the Lord today!
Let’s begin with what the Bible has to say on this topic, here are two examples:
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4 NKJV
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: Psalm 92:1 NKJV
Two ways we can give thanks daily are sending prayers of thanksgiving throughout the day and taking the time to kneel and bless the Lord. Let’s look deeper into what each of these looks like and how we can find things to be grateful for throughout our days.
1. What does it mean to be Thankful?
The meaning of the word thankful gives us a clue! One word often translated for thankful or to give thanks is the word yadah.
The definition of this word in Hebrew is to throw or cast. This word is most commonly translated as confess, give thanks, and praise. By combining the definition and translation together we come up with the word picture of one who is thankful.
To be thankful means we throw or cast up prayers of thankfulness, confession, and praises.
These are prayers we can do throughout the day; we can cast up a prayer when we wake up, take care of children, do our job, drive to our appointment, or even while cooking dinner. There are so many things to be grateful for every day if we take the time to look for them.
When we look at Psalm 100:4, the words thanksgiving, praise, and thankful have been covered in the word yadah. But what about the word bless?
2. What does it mean to Bless the Lord?
Like thankful, the definition gives us a clue. One word often translated bless is the word barak.
The definition of this word is to bless or kneel. This word is most commonly translated as to bless. By combining the definition and translation together we come up with the word picture of one who is blessing the Lord.
One who is kneeling and offering a blessing to the Lord.
For me, it is easier to give thanks than it is to bless the Lord. Giving thanks is something I can throw up to the Lord as I go through my day.
However, offering a blessing to the Lord is much harder for me. Kneeling makes me stop what I am doing, change positions, and think through what I am saying to the Lord.
Blessings the Lord has been used by believers over the centuries, and some ancient blessings follow a unique pattern: taking note of something, remembering God’s character, and blessing Him for that thing in connection to His character.
For example, here are three sample blessings that use this pattern.
1. Blessing when seeing a rainbow.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise.
2. Blessing when seeing the first blooming tree in springtime.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has made nothing lacking in His world, and created in it good creatures and good trees to give mankind pleasure.
3. Blessing over bread as you begin a meal.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
Notice the pattern of blessing the name of God and specifically blessing aspects of His character. The following passage provides examples of how to bless God.
Blessing a name of God:
Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe.
As you pray be sure to study and use different names of God as you learn His names and their meaning.
Identify as many aspects of His character associated with the focus of your thankfulness:
Rainbow: He remembers, He is faithful, He keeps His Word
Blooming tree: He created, He sustains
Bread: He created, He provides for daily food
What about God’s character are you learning and giving thanks for this week?
Ask how that blesses me, but notice the focus of the blessing is only on God:
Rainbow: God will keep His covenants
Blooming tree: God is Creator, What He created is good and to be enjoyed
Bread: God will give me my daily bread
Blessing God in this way, is one way we can focus only on Him and not ourselves or others. Prayers and petitions are needed but when we add blessing God to our prayer life, it will take on a new and deeper diminsion.
These blessings give us ideas on how we can expand this aspect of our prayer life. As the psalms remind us, it is good to be thankful and bless the Lord. Psalm 92:1.
As we enter into this time of Thanksgiving, may we use this season to consistently find things throughout our day to be grateful for, and may we think about practicing thankfulness in two ways: throughout our day casting up prayers of thanksgiving, and taking the time to kneel and bless the Lord.
From all of us at Grapevine we would like hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Dianna
