Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100
Thankfulness is not the period at the end of the sentence; it’s not the final word when we’ve gotten what we wanted. Thankfulness should be the attitude we live in every day as believers in the light of who God is and all He’s done for us. When we have a right perspective of who we are now in Christ, we should be overflowing with thankfulness and with joy!
When I look back at my life before Christ, it’s overwhelming to realize how much He’s really saved me from. I’m incredibly thankful for the purpose Christ has given for my life- without Him, there is nothing.
There are a lot of practical ways we can respond in thankfulness besides just the words, “thank you.” Often, we express thankfulness to one another by returning favors or giving gifts to let people know we are thinking of them and appreciate them. Especially coming into the holiday season, it’s a time to consider some extra ways we can bless those who don’t have as much as we do.
Not necessarily just with physical things or money, which can also be important, but consider this – there are 3 million people today living outside the reach of the Gospel. Meaning, there are no believers who speak their language and there is no Bible or other resources in their language; even if they wanted to know about Jesus, they couldn’t. This is the reality of the unreached.
We all know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but what about Giving Tuesday? Giving Tuesday takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (November 29th, this year) and it’s a day dedicated to focusing on giving back and making a difference in your community as well as across the globe; primarily through financial donations. Thousands of charities and organizations run social media campaigns and hold events to bring awareness to their cause and try to raise up partnership and support.
This year at GSI, we want to focus on Giving Good News– bringing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus to unreached areas where His name has not yet been proclaimed. Your gift on Tuesday will have an impact in communities that have never heard the name of Jesus.
We have workers serving throughout Asia who have dedicated their lives to bringing the Gospel of salvation. They live in some of the most difficult places in the world; spend years learning the language and culture of the people, and integrating themselves into the community in order to bring Truth. But they cannot stay and complete the work without the support of staff and partners here in the US. Your donation for Giving Good News will go towards keeping our US office running so that our field workers can continue in their task of building relationships and making disciples as God transforms lives and communities.