In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I Thess. 5:12

Pie is a favorite staple after eating too much of a Thanksgiving Dinner. Pumpkin pie is traditionally the unofficial pie for Thanksgiving. Different ingredients go into baking a pie, all of which are essential for everything to come outright.

Too often we think of Thanksgiving as something simplistic, broad-based, and something too nebulous. We ought to have a life filled with Thanksgiving. There is a way to break it down however by understanding all the components of having a delicious Thanksgiving pie.

INGREDIENT LIST

• Gratitude
  This component is understanding God’s grace and realizing we are not deserving of His favor. Yet He bids to taste and see that the Lord is gracious (I Pet. 2:3).
• Praise
  The component of the praise is not just a glib word that rolls off our tongue. It is giving God the glory and honor, He richly deserves. We value God’s name and lift it high above everything. Psalms 22:26 shared how those who truly seek God will praise Him. Praise should be the breath of the believer.
• Remembrance
  Psalms 63:6 enjoins us to remember God on the night watches. We meditate on His past goodness to us. We need to meditate on God and His Word as an antidote to sleeplessness. Here, David seems to wake up thinking about how great God has been. We need to rehearse what God has done for us on a continual basis.
• Declaration
  The Declaration of Independence declared grievances against Britain and the King for no representation while taxing and oppressing. Declaring God’s mighty acts is the positive expression of all that God is and what He does in our lives. Psalms 107:22b says we are to declare His works with rejoicing. It is greater than bragging about your grandchildren. He is expressing who God is to us and what He does for us.
• Exaltation
  If we want to experience God’s glory in our lives, we will give Him the rightful place He deserves in our lives. Colossians 1:18b says, “That in all things, He might have the preeminence. Our aspiration is found in Psalms 108:5 that God be exalted above the Heavens and His glory fill all the earth” as it is in Heaven.
• Magnification
  Paul’s desire in Philippians 1:20 was that Christ is magnifiable in His body whether by living or dying. To magnify is to enlarge something. Magnification is taking an object that is small and making it larger until you see its intricate features. “We must decrease and He must increase” in our lives to magnify God.
• Humility
  Micah 6:8 says one of the requirements of God to be right with Him is our need to walk humbly before Him. If you do all the above, it ought to be easier to be humble. We put God in His rightful place and we assume ours. Humility is an understanding of the gracious hand of God in our lives and His power to save us and use us.

Put all these ingredients together and you have a greater understanding of what Thanksgiving is all about and what it means to give thanks. This makes a perfect thanksgiving pie, just in time for this great holiday.

May you be blessed! Happy Thanksgiving!