Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! – Psalm 100:4, Amplified Bible (AMP)

The term “thanksgiving” shows up 29 times in the King James Version of the Bible and 41 times in my favorite Bible study tool, the Amplified Bible.* In reading all of the verses, it seems that we can render thanks unto God in three main ways: through our actions, through our voices, and in our prayers.

Many of the verses refer to “sacrifices of thanksgiving.” These verses are found in the Old Testament, and they refer to a certain kind of sacrifice that was offered as a way of saying “thanks” to God for His many blessings. Such sacrifices came with a cost, for each offerer, in order to have something to sacrifice, had to either give up something they owned or purchase something they did not have. They also had to take time from their other duties to be present for the event. So, offering such sacrifices cost them both time and money, but through their actions those with thankful hearts showed The Lord just how thankful they were. Just like these Old Testament believers took sacrificial action to show God how thankful they were, we should do the same, taking our time and money to do those things God would have us to do, i.e., spread the Gospel and take care of those in need.

Many of the verses on thanksgiving refer to praising God with our voices. Most of these verses equate “using our voices” to singing, but others insinuate simply telling others (without song) about how thankful we are. On the singing front, there are so many verses that command the believer to thank God in song that it is obvious God thoroughly enjoys being thanked in this manner. No matter how good or bad we think our singing voices are, we need to remember that God is the one that gave us our voices, and we should thank Him by using our voices to sing His praises. On the non-singing front, we should take every opportunity to tell others how thankful we are for God’s blessings. God provides both large blessings and small ones, and when we tell others about how He has blessed us in every aspect of our lives, we draw attention to His goodness, and we encourage the souls of others to cling to Him.

Lastly, many of the verses show us that we should thank God privately in our prayers. Not always, but oftentimes, when we thank God through our actions or with our voices, others will see. That’s perfectly fine, for when we praise God publicly, we bring glory to His name. But when in our prayer closet, when no one else is watching, we should also be thanking The Lord for His goodness to us. There is no better way to build our relationship with our Savior than to spend one-on-one time with Him, and when we display a thankful heart during such times of intimacy, it warms His heart tremendously.

On this Thanksgiving holiday in America, we make a special effort to be thankful for God’s many blessings. But no matter what day of the year it is – and no matter where in the world we live – we ought to thank God through our actions, in song, and in our prayers, all day, every day. He has done so much for us. The least we can do is thank Him in return.

* To review verses on “thanksgiving” for yourself, visit www.biblegateway.com. You can select your preferred Bible version and enter your keyword search term at the top of the home page.