“Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.” – Psalm 100:4

We often are deceived by culture and traditions. The traditions of the Thanksgiving holiday are a great way to express our gratitude to our God, but we often forget that this is the purpose of our living—to praise God every day of our lives. Thanksgiving is not something that you keep for a special day; it is something that should be expressed always.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving…”

The first line of this verse is telling us that we should start every prayer with praise. It doesn’t matter the intention of the prayer; to thank Him should always be the way to start. When showing gratitude, we are filled with joy and peace. A grateful person is a positive person, but the opposite is true as well—an ungrateful person is a negative one who is always complaining about things, and nobody wants to be around that person.

“Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.” – Philippians 4:6

In this present world we live in, it is easy to get worried and anxious. There is always something that appeals to our fears, and when those things arrive, our struggles grow bigger than our hopes. In this verse, God is telling us that whenever we go before Him to present our requests, we must do it with thanksgiving. When giving thanks, we remember His blessings and everything else seems insignificant.

“…give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – I Thessalonians 5:18

Why we must give thanks in everything? Because it is the will of God, and we know that God always wants the best for us. He knows that in giving Him thanks we are being filled with peace — the thing we long for most when we’re struggling.

With all these been said, make Thanksgiving an everyday tradition in your life, and every day will be a celebration!

"All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
but the cheerful heart has a continual feast." - Proverbs 15:15