Thankful To God! 11-23-25

Welcome to the word for the week. Well, for those of us who live in the United States this week represents an important holiday. It is called Thanksgiving and it means just that. The history of the celebration was to set aside a day to thank God for the harvest and blessings of that year. There is nothing wrong with taking time to thank God for the things that He has done. However, in a biblical sense we are to give God thanks everyday. There is not a day that goes by in our lives where we cannot take time to thank God. No matter what you have going on, just the fact that you are still here says everything. There is no question that God deserves our praise. If He had not done the things He has done and is still doing then none of us would be here. That is important for this week so let’s go further.

It is easy for Thanksgiving to become a day about the meal that we eat. Yes, we take time to bless the food and thank God for allowing us to be able to eat but the original meaning for the celebration has been somewhat lost if we are going to be honest. If we thank God everyday then what is the problem one may ask? The problem is do we really thank God everyday? Yes, there are a lot of you reading this who pray everyday. There are also a lot of people who do not pray everyday. Some reasons are because they “forget” to do so and others are because they just do not pray. So, what does it really mean to be thankful to God? In a world that wants to hear less and less about God how do we maintain the standard of God? We do that by being thankful every single day we are alive to see another day.

There will be rough moments on this journey. Everything is not going to feel good or go your way. Yet, we have to press through those rough times. One of the ways we do that is by giving thanks to God always. This brings us to a challenge for this week. Wake up everyday with something to be thankful to God for. Wake up everyday this week giving God the praise just because of who He is. Wake up everyday this week and declare that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Yes, do this every single day God allows you to see this week. Do not miss one day and there is a reason for this. Once you get in the habit of thanking God several things happen. It becomes second nature to you, it becomes a daily habit, it gets you out of self, it forces you to realize God is always with you, it draws you closer to God day by day, and it teaches you what it really means to be grateful to God.

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you in His grace,
Bishop Carlos J. Lennon