Thanksgiving and Happiness

Ps 32:11“Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;sing, all you who are upright in heart!”

There is a direct connection between thankfulness and happiness. It is not, however the connection that most people thing,

Being happy does not make us happy. There are plenty of people who perceive themselves to be happy, but who do not thank God for their happiness. But there are not people who are truly thankful who are not truly, to some degree at least, happy.

Thanking God is an acknowledgement of the rightness of what He has done for us.  We cannot thank Him for what we do not recognize was from His hand. Nor can we thank without admitting that what is from His hand is good.   He is the ultimate judge of what is good, and what is not good.  He is the one who works in all things for our good.

It should come as no surprise then that the act of giving thanks increases happiness.  Putting an idea into words solidifies it in our mind.  As we say is we come to believe it. If we give thanks to God for His gifts, we must believe that what happens to us really is a gift.  The act of saying we are thinking makes us thankful.

It works the other way around.  As a Christian being happy is a way of being thankful.  In the book of Ecclesiastes,  Solomon talks about all the things that do not make us happy.  Wealth does not make us happy.  Pleasure does not make us happy.  Neither does wealth, long life, knowledge or wisdom.  All these things we think will make us happy just miss the mark.  Along the way, he concludes

“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.”  Ecc 8:14-15

We eat, we drink, we enjoy life, because God has given them to us for that purpose.

When we give gifts to children on Christmas morning, we seldom get a “thank you.” Often they do not even know that we gave it.  We don’t need to hear it, however, the look of delight on their faces is reward enough for any parent.  When God sees us enjoying the good things He has given,  He is pleased, even when we forget to say it. Only our dependence on Gdo can give us the peace of mind to enjoy the good things God has given.

There is an old hymn that goes

“We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land

But it was fed and watered by God’s almighty hand

He makes the snows of winter, the warmth to swell the grain

The springtime and the harvest, and warm refreshing rain

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above

So thank the Lord, thank the Lord for all his love.”

“We thank thee then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seedtime and the harvest, our life our health our food,
No gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts
But that which thou desirest, our humble thankful hearts!

Lord, let me enjoy the good things of this life, realizing that the good things that have come to me have been given to make me happy by a God who desires my happiness.

Help me to see the goodness of what You have given even on the darkest day.