There are too many to count reasons to be thankful today.

“You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.”  (Psalms 40:5 ESV)

A lot of times, we wait for a spectacular testimony of God’s goodness before we lift our hands and raise our voice in thanksgiving. How about uttering this two-weighty words, “Thank You!”, the moment we wake up? I believe it dearly touches our Father’s heart when we acknowledge Him at the onset of a seemingly ordinary day because He knows that when great things happen, it is but norm for us to be grateful.

“Thank You!” is the password that we use to enter in into His presence, the heavenly realm of the supernatural.  We enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

“Enter with the password: “Thank you!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him. For GOD is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever.” (Psalm 100:4-5 MSG)

The very reason why we can effortlessly give Him thanks is because we KNOW by experience or by the power of His written and spoken promises in the Word that the Lord our God is GOOD, that He is abounding in love, amazingly gracious, rich in mercy, mighty to save and that He has great plans for us.  Left without this experiential knowledge, to give thanks can come strenuous let alone impossible.

Come to think of it, if we meet a person who has not done anything good to us, it would come across utterly odd to thank him or her.  But to acknowledge someone who has done good to us, it us but natural for us to say, “Thank You.”

Knowledge of Who He is is powerful.  Additionally, knowledge of what He has done for us because He so loves us is equally powerful.  More so, knowledge of how precious you and I are before Him is weighty.  Knowledge that nothing and no one can separate us from Him and His love boosts our confidence to a whole new level.  It is our knowledge of Who He is that compels us to thank Him, praise Him and worship Him.

Oh how He desires for us to KNOW HIM and TRUST HIM.   How it amazingly delights Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts that He positions Himself to be FOUND.  What greater way for us to come to the knowledge of Him than what is written. His Word makes us aware of all these and issues us an invitation to explore and experience His goodness, His mercy, His grace, His comfort, His love, the very truth of Who He is.

“The entrance of His Word gives light and brings understanding to the simple.”  (Psalm 119:130)

Saying “Thank You” is an expression of “connectedness” with our Daddy God and it ushers us in into His presence where the supernatural becomes natural.  Jesus demonstrated the power of thanksgiving when He multiplied fish and bread that did not just feed thousands but satisfied them.

Be mindful that all the miracles that Jesus did were done as a “Man”, “anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with great power. He did wonderful things for others and divinely healed all who were under the tyranny of the devil, for God had anointed Him.” (Acts 10:38 TPT)

As evening approached, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

¹⁶ Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here to Me,” he said. ¹⁹ And He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, HE GAVE THANKS and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ²⁰ They all ate and were SATISFIED, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹ The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”  (Matthew 14:15-21 TPT)

Notice that thanksgiving preceded the multiplication of bread and fish miracle.  Hmmmm …..!   Jesus gave thanks and then boooom, the supernatural became natural.  The disciples did not see the bread and fish piling up.   It just became normal that as they distributed, the supply never ran out.

In another passage, Jesus also gave thanks to the Father before He called forth Lazarus from the grave who was dead for four days.

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “FATHER, I THANK YOU THAT YOU HAVE HEARD ME. ⁴² And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” ⁴⁴ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”  (John 11:38-44)

Jesus acknowledged His connectedness with the Father and was confidently, fully persuaded that He is always heard when He gave thanks before He commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave.

Coincidence?  Nahhhh ….!  Everything written in the Bible is God-breathed, God-ordained therefore absolutely purposeful.  And I believe that when we see two or more passages that are patterned the same way, we are to pay attention for its emphasized significance.

We are on a learning process day in and day out, so why not make it a purpose-driven agenda to give thanks always.  His Word says, “IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS for it is THE WILL OF GOD in Christ Jesus for us.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)  For us to have a grateful heart effortlessly and heartfully with full conviction and enthusiasm is for us to KNOW HIM intimately.   There is nothing like KNOWING HIM and out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths shall utter, “Thank You, Lord!”  Indeed, the deeper we go in our knowledge of Him both in revelation and experience, the easier it is for us to give Him thanks that postures us to see the supernatural realm invade our “not so good” natural situations and turn them into “supernaturally” GOOD.