Thanksgiving is more than a holiday on our calendar. It’s an attitude of the heart: a wonderful way to see the world. Do you have a heart of thanksgiving?
What words would you use to describe your heart? This is a most important question! The Bible is clear about the importance of the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Constantly guard your heart for it will determine your attitude and actions. Protect it from sin, negativity, bitterness, cynicism, uncleanness, unforgiveness, anger, jealousy, envy, etc.
The Bible teaches us to overcome evil with good. We protect our heart from sinful attitudes when we fill it with good things!
Fill your heart with Scripture.
Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
Fill your heart with good music.
Ephesians 5:19 “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”
Fill your heart with praise!
Psalm 92:1 “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:”
[shareable]The Bible teaches us to overcome evil with good. We protect our heart from sinful attitudes when we fill it with good things![/shareable]
There is only so much room in your heart. It cannot be filled with good and evil at the same time. With which of these pairs would you rather fill your heart?
- praise or complaint
- faith or doubt
- gratitude or envy
- compliment or criticism
- purity or lasciviousness
- forgiveness or unforgiveness
- honesty or falsehood
- encouragement or gossip
- virtue or dishonor
- sincerity or duplicity
- love or hate
Of course, we would rather be filled with good, but do any of these ungodly traits currently have a home in your heart? If so, ask God to forgive you today and replace them with good.
A thankful heart opens the door to gladness, praise, rejoicing, and singing. A heart of thanksgiving improves our lives and our godly influence on those around us.
Let’s decide to have a thankful heart and say with the David –
Psalm 9:1–2 “I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”
Yes, how easy it is to ask God for the desire to fill our hearts with Scripture, but so few do. For those who do, the fruit of doing so should show on our face and deeds, compelling others to want it for themselves. So important to protect our health too. A slow suicide is still suicide. Staying conveniently ignorant to eat fake food instead of God’s grown food is like staying conveniently ignorant of God’s creations(existence) to live a self driven worldly life. If we look and feel run down most of the time, and appear low energy and unhealthy, fewer people will be compelled to follow. We need to have a happy and joyful spirit with energy, and publicly praise God for the grace we received to be healthy and able to understand and apply scripture in our lives under God’s power.