The United States of America has been blessed with unmeasurable blessings from sea to shining sea. We have been blessed as an industrial giant and have tremendous agricultural produce and reserves with rain in due season with abundant harvests. We have an abundance of mineral wealth including coal, aluminum, nickel, zinc, copper, lead, tin, bauxite and other precious metal outputs. We have the greatest economy in the world and the best health and medical services of hospitals, doctors and nurses. We have the best military in the world, and also the best educational facilities and opportunities in the world.

Where did we get all of this vast wealth, resources and blessings? Let’s let President Abraham Lincoln answer: In Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of April 30, 1863, for a nationwide day of fasting and prayer, he said: "It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God ... and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.... We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown; but we have forgotten God! We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."

Abraham Lincoln recognized that our blessings came from God. We all want God to bless America and we want Him to bless us too!

1. Where does every good and perfect gift come from? (James 1:17).

Note: Everything we have comes from God: Our health, our job, the good life. How quick something could happen to take it all away.

2. Are we commanded to give Thanks to God? (Psalms 106:1, 50:14-15.) What will God do for us in our day of trouble? And what shall we then do?

3. Did the apostle Paul tell us in the New Testament to give thanks? ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, Ephesians 5:1-4, 19-20.)

4. What did the apostle Paul tell us that the fruit of our lips should be? (Hebrews 13:15.)

5. Did Jesus set us an example in giving thanks? (Matthew 14:17-20). How many people did he feed? How many baskets full of fragments remained?

Note: One example of Jesus giving thanks was before a meal where He fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Notice that Jesus blessed the fish and the bread. To "bless" is "to speak well of, i.e. (religiously) to bless (thank or invoke a benediction upon, prosper):--bless, praise".

6. Did Jesus do a remarkable healing of ten men who were lepers? (Luke 17:11-19). How many of the ten men said Thank You?

Note: Did you notice that only one of the ten men who were healed thanked Jesus for his healing? This man was grateful and said "thank you"

7. Will people be thankful in the last days? (2 Timothy 3:1-4.)

Note: Let’s notice that in the last days that men will be very selfish and unthankful. Notice that men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

8. When people have it good and are prosperous do they tend to loose sight of the fact that it was God who blessed them? Let’s look at a warning from God: "For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, {13} and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, {14} that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God." (Deut. 8:12-14 NLT)

When people become proud do they have a tendency to forget God? Do they not want to listen to God?

God says in Jeremiah 22:21 (NKJV): "I spoke to you in your prosperity, But you said, 'I will not hear.' This has been your manner from your youth, That you did not obey My voice."

When people forget God, God will forget them. Notice this frightful warning in Hosea 4:6 (NKJV): "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."

Notice that this warning to God’s priests is also a warning to God’s people. The warning says: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge". Why? "Because they have rejected knowledge". What kind of knowledge? The knowledge that God is talking about is knowledge about Him, His truth and His law.

9. We in America have been blessed abundantly. Deuteronomy 28 is the blessings and cursing chapter. As you read through this chapter, think about the abundant blessings that we have in the United States.

Are we to carefully observe God’s Ten Commandments? (Verse 1.) Will God set us above other nations if we do observe His Commandments? Will we receive many blessings? (Verse 2.) Where and how will we be blessed? (Verses 3-6.) Will God protect us from our enemies? (Verse 7.) Will God bless our storehouses and our land? (Verse 8.) Will we be established as a holy people to God? (Verse 9.) What do we have to do to attain these blessings?

Note: Did you notice that these blessings are conditional upon the people keeping God’s Ten Commandments and walking in His ways? Read the rest of the chapter to see what kind of curses are involved if we disobey God.

In Conclusion:.

Is it part of your character to say "Thank You" when you receive a gift or for some kindness shown to you.?

It takes time to be thankful. It takes time to pray to God and say thanks.

Philippians 4:6:"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."

Give Thanks to God and Be Thankful.