What a blessed holiday is Thanksgiving! It is the one holiday that has been least polluted by commercialism or exploited by retailers. It is simply a day to pause from our labors, share a meal with family, reflect on all of God’s blessings, and thank Him for each one.
While we often consider physical benefits of food, heat, homes, and material items, we often fail to reflect on the spiritual and relational blessings He provides. Certainly family and friends come to mind but so too should salvation, forgiveness, love, and grace.
Every day, God backs up His delivery truck to the garage door of our lives with a brand new load of these benefits just waiting to unload them into our souls. As we commune with Him in prayer, He begins to move these blessings from His vehicle into our hearts.
Too often, however, we fail to open our hearts to receive them. We get busy with our responsibilities and activities and neglect to unlock our loading docks to receive what He wants to give us. Tons of joy, mercy, and insight that we desperately need just sit on His truck.
Imagine someone wanting to put gas in your tank but you refused to open the cap. When we neglect devotional and prayer time with Jesus, we forfeit all of these pallets of blessings that far surpass anything Amazon might leave on our porch.
Unlike Amazon, UPS, or FedEx, God will not just leave them and drive off. His blessings only come through a relationship with Him. We must intentionally open ourselves to His presence in our hearts and as we do so, He piles His blessings in every corner of our lives.
For those who are receiving God’s benefits, we should heed His directives to pass them on. We were never meant to be cul-de-sacs of God’s grace but channels through whom He can bless others.
Jesus illustrated this principle clearly in Matthew 18 in the parable of the servant who was unwilling to pass along forgiveness to others. Even though the king had forgiven him of a debt that he could never have paid off even in a hundred lifetimes, that servant turned around and demanded payment of a very small amount from another debtor. As a result, the king threw him in prison until his own debt could be satisfied.
Although the main point of the lesson is to forgive as we have been forgiven, that same principle holds true with other benefits God provides. As we receive joy and love from Him, we are to pass them along to others. The same is true with insight and grace as well as material blessings that God offloads for us.
During the COVID pandemic, the government provided a stimulus to get the economy moving. So too, these gifts from God can be seen as His stimulus to encourage our growth in Him, His Church, and His Word, as well as to bless others around us. He wants to stimulate us to love and good works as we are told in Hebrews 10.
One other way to think of this is in terms of supply side grace. President Reagan championed supply side economics by providing tax cuts that would, in turn, be passed on throughout society. Critics sometimes called this trickle-down economics.
This concept, however, is exactly what God does. He lavishes blessings and benefits on His children and He expects us to pass them on to others. Rather than trickle-down, we should open the valve and let them gush freely since we’re constantly being resupplied from an infinite source.
This Thanksgiving, as we ponder all of the material and spiritual blessings God offloads into our lives daily, may we open our hearts to receive them and may we remember His admonition to pass them along to others as part of His stimulus package for humanity. Happy Thanksgiving, George