Thanksgiving precedes increase. Thanksgiving open up miracles. Thanksgiving accomplishes so much more than “I will enter in His gates with thanksgiving in my heart” for thanksgiving to God is an act of worship to the God we serve.
The tenth leper exhibited this when he returned to Jesus, glorified God with a loud voice, and fell down at His feet to give him thanks. This was an act of worship. And the result was that he was made whole in his spirit, soul and body. The other lepers were “made clean” (katharizo - cleansed, purged, purified) in their physical bodies of the disease their body carried, but this tenth leper was - to use today’s terminology - “sozod” meaning he was saved, delivered, protected, healed, preserved and made whole.
Another miracle of giving thanks to the Lord (recorded in 2 Chronicles 20) is when singers were appointed to go before the army to sing to the Lord and praise His name. The song they sang is recorded in multiple translations as “give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love endures forever.” Giving Him thanks was their battle cry! And the Lord granted them victory. Every word of instruction Jahaziel spoke (when the spirit of the Lord came upon him) came to pass. The battle was not theirs to fight; the Lord fought on their behalf. All they had to do was posture their hearts toward the Lord.
And this is the fruit of thanksgiving. It sets our heart toward the Lord and reminds us of our dependence upon Him. Without Him we can do nothing, especially in our own strength and understanding. But with Him we can do what He requires us to do. In our acknowledgment of our dependence upon Him, we stay in a posture of humility. A posture that keeps us protected, but that is another message.
Jesus also modeled the increase that thanksgiving brings, for He is our perfect theology. When He broke the bread before the multitude the second time Matthew 15:36 records: And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. And in John 6:11, recording the first time this miracle occurred, we read, “And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks…” And when the gospel authors don’t specifically record that Jesus gave thanks they record He looked up to heaven, implying his heart was set toward the Lord, and a heart set toward the Lord will always be a heart filled with thanks and praise to Him. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” and a heart filled with complaint is a heart set on one’s self, a heart NOT set on God, and that is another message.
Thanksgiving toward the Lord is the key component that unlocked the miracle of provision, of increase. And this is a key we can employ. Especially when we find ourselves in circumstances that are hard; when we can only thank Him in the midst of our circumstances and not for them. THIS is the time to thank Him for who He is. And to acknowledge those attributes of His we need to remind ourselves of.
“Father, I thank you that you are the God who sees me. I thank you that You are the God who sees me and knows me, and that You see the desires of my heart. And I thank You that it is Your good pleasure to work and to will Your good pleasure in my life.”
This is a portion of what poured from my heart today. Yours will look different. Our circumstances come and our circumstances go, but He is the Eternal One who is always with us and whose ears are always open to our cries and our prayers and our giving of thanks.
What will your voice release unto Him today?
Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakeable kingdom we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights His heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe. Hebrews 12:28 The Passion