We have thought all this week about things for which we are thankful.  Looking at it from a big-picture perspective, all the things for which we are thankful come from God; thus, we should be thankful for God Himself.

Are you thankful that we serve a God who is loving and benevolent?  We should all be thankful for what God gives us, but, more importantly, we should be thankful for the very nature of God that moves and motivates Him to give to us so freely.

The greatest gift God has ever given us is His Son (John 3:16).  Why did He make such a huge sacrifice?  The passage tells us—He loved the world.  All the gifts of God are motivated by His love.  This should not surprise us since love is the essence of His being.  1 John 4:8 simply states, “God is love.”

Love is not the only characteristic of God for which we should be thankful.  The Psalmist tells us that we should be thankful for His goodness.

Psalm 118:1 (ESV)
¹ Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

When was the last time you thanked God for His goodness?  When we pray, we should make a habit of thanking God for being good.  The problem is God’s goodness is something we too often take for granted.

Imagine what it would be like if God was not good all the time.  Even if we served a God who was good most of the time, but not always, we would be in trouble.  Think about the danger we would be in if God lost His temper unjustly once in a while.  What do you think would become of us if a God, who is omnipotent was sometimes bad?

Sometimes the best of men “get up on the wrong side of the bed.”  I am talking about people who are almost always good, pleasant, and kind in nature, but who get grumpy and irritable, and lash out uncharacteristically once in a while.  What if God was like that?  We should thank Him that He never acts uncharacteristically.  He is good, and He is good all the time.

What about the patience of God?  Man has disappointed Him from the beginning.  It was not long after the creation of man that God’s righteousness moved Him to destroy the world by flood; but, even then, he showed patience.

1 Peter 3:18–20 (ESV)
¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹ in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

God gives us chance after chance to serve Him as we should.  I do not know about you, but I am glad that He patiently puts up with my shortcomings.  And this is true with mankind as a whole.  Why has Jesus not yet returned?  I may not know all the reasons, but I do know a few—He is patient and does not wish for anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Let us all take the time to think of all that God does for us and has given to us and be thankful.  But let us also be thankful simply for God being who He is—a loving, long-suffering God who is always good.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.