Thanks to God for My Redeemer

Thanks to God for My Redeemer

O give thanks to the Lord; call upon His name … Psalm 105:1

This is Thanksgiving week and I want to share with you some great hymns that we tend to only sing at this time of year. The Scripture makes it very clear – we are not to just give thanks for some things, most things, the things that we deem to be thankful for – but in all things!!!

I love fall. This fall has been spectacular in terms of the brilliant yellows and reds. I am thankful for this display of God’s creative hand. But I sure have not been thankful for those same leaves I have had to rake!

But if I were to really stop and analyze my ungrateful heart, I need to be thankful that I can still see the leaves that need to be raked. My arms and hands still can rake the leaves. I can still lift, push the wheelbarrow and smell the leaves (though I’d love to be able to burn them …)

The writer of this hymn wrote this hymn when he was 29 and working for the Salvation Army. Eight years later he had a back problem that crippled him for the rest of his life. Despite the pain, he still served the Lord with the Salvation army for many years:

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,

Thanks for all Thou dost provide!

Thanks for times now but a memory,

Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,

Thanks for dark and dreary fall!

Thanks for tears by not forgotten,

Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,

Thanks for what Thou dost deny!

Thanks for storms that I have weathered,

Thanks for all Thou dost supply!

Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure,

Thanks for comfort in despair!

Thanks for grace that none can measure,

Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,

Thanks for storms their stems contain!

Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,

Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!

Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow;

Thanks for heavenly peace with Thee!

Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,

Thanks through all eternity!

Are you thankful today? Make this week the beginning a lifetime of a thankful spirit. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 22;  Ezekiel 18-19; James 4

Dig This Quote:  Thanksgiving is the vibration of the soul’s heart-strings under the soft touch of God’s benevolence.

Determined Digging: Level 1: John 14:6; Level 2: Matthew 5:10-16

Determined Praying: Prayer is not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to him of our sense of need. A. W. Pink