The Christmas season is once again upon us. And with another Christmas season comes another opportunity for us Christians to reflect upon and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In addition, the celebration of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ at this time of year gives us another opportunity to give thanks to God. In this article, I will list five reasons to give God thanks this Christmas (and, Lord willing, throughout the new year).

In Psalm 136, the Bible reveals the two fundamental reasons we must give thanks to God. And they are as follows: First, we must give God thanks because of who He is. And second, we must give God thanks because of what He has done. These two fundamental reasons, revealed in Psalm 136 and, in fact, all of Scripture, serve as the foundation for the five reasons listed in this article. With that in mind, here are five reasons to give God thanks this Christmas.

1. Because God is good.

In the first part of vv. 1 in Psalm 136, the Psalmist says, “¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...” In the NKJV, this verse says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...” Here, the Psalmist summons God’s people to give thanks to the Lord. The Hebrew verb for “give thanks” is yadah, which means to give thanks and praise to God. It is worth noting that yadah always includes, but is not limited to, verbal thanksgiving. True thanksgiving involves both the mouth and the heart (life).

The verb yadah is in the imperative mood in this verse, so it is not a suggestion but a command. Here, the word of God commands us to give God thanks and praise with our mouths and our lives. Why? The Psalmist provides the reason in v. 1: “For/because, He is good.” God is Good by nature; He is the standard of all goodness, moral excellence, and all things pleasant. He is the epitome of goodness; therefore, He cannot be anything but Good. As a result, everything God says and does will always be good because He is the good God.

Therefore, you must give God thanks this Christmas because of who He is. He is Good!

2. Because He gave you life.

In Gen 1:1, the word of God says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And in Gen 1:27, the Bible says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The Good God, who created the heavens and the earth by the word of His power, is the same Good God who created you. And you must not think of God’s creation of you as a general/ordinary act, no! It was extraordinary. God intricately and intimately “knit you together in your mother’s womb.”

In Psalm 139 vv. 13 – 18, David, by the grace and power of God, acknowledged that:

1. God intentionally and intimately formed his inner parts. God personally formed all of his internal organs while he was in his mother’s womb 13.
2. God’s work of creating him was an awesome, honorable, and unique work of God 14.
3. God skillfully made him in secret, that is, in the womb, and that even his bones, though hidden from sight, were not hidden from God 15
4. God saw him and knew him before he was even fully formed, and God ordained all the days of his life, long before he even lived one of them (outside the womb) 16.
5. David acknowledged that God’s thoughts concerning him, even in his underdeveloped state, were precious, vast and immeasurable 17 & 18.

What an astounding truth! The good God of heaven and earth, intentionally, intricately, intimately, and uniquely made David. And what was true of David is also true of you. God created you. He gave you life. You are not an accident, and you are not here by chance. It is the LORD our God who “made us, and not we ourselves” (Ps 100:3); therefore, give thanks to the Lord for your life!

3. Because He protects & preserves you.

Not only did the good God intentionally and personally knit you together in your mother’s womb, but He also protects and preserves you right now. In other words, if it had not been for the Lord, you would not be alive today. It is because of His mercies that you are not consumed. In Psalm 121 vv. 3-8, the Lord reminded His Old Covenant people, Israel, that He was their protector. In those verses, the Hebrew word shamar, which means to hedge about, keep, guard, watch over, protect, and preserve, appears in verses 3, 4, 5, 7 & 8.

God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep/shamar it (Gen 2:15). Adam was to keep, protect, and preserve the garden. Well, in Psalm 121, God says He is the protector and preserver of His people. God was Israel’s protector, preserver, and keeper. And in like manner, God is the protector, keeper, and preserver of His new covenant people, the Church.

During His High Priestly prayer, Jesus said to God the Father in Jn 17:12, “¹² While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” In Jude 24-25 the word of God says “²⁴ Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

The words guarded in John 17 & keep in Jude are translations of the same Greek word that is equivalent to our Hebrew word shamar in Psalm 121. Dear Christian, this Christmas, give thanks to God for protecting and preserving you. He promises to do so for eternity (Jn 10:27-28).

4. Because He provides for you and prospers your way

The word of God reveals that it is the Lord our God who provides for our every need, and it is He who prospers our way. In Psalm 37:25-26, the psalmist says, “²⁵ I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. ²⁶ All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing.” The good God provides for you and gives you the power to get wealth.

It is not your own power and strength that have increased your wealth or even made it possible for you to do so; instead, it is the Lord your God (Deut 8:18). Furthermore, He is the One who provides your daily needs and gives you many good gifts. In Matt 6:25, Jesus says, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

Then in vv. 32-33 Jesus says, “³² “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In James 1:17, the word of God reminds us that “¹⁷ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Has this reality gripped your heart? All that you have, big or small, has been given to you by the good God! Therefore, give Him thanks.

5. Because He has given us His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ

Thus far, we have considered four reasons to give God thanks. But this last reason is by far the most significant for us as Christians because it is the greatest God given gift of all.  We must give God thanks because He gave us His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and eternal life in His name. In Gal 4:4-5, the apostle Paul said, “⁴ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

The reason Christmas is so important to us as Christians is because it points us to the celebration and significance of Easter and the empty cross on Calvary’s mountain. In the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to die for us and save us from our sins and its penalty. At God’s appointed time 2000 years ago, Jesus, the Messiah, came. He was born of the Virgin Mary, and He lived the perfect life we failed to live.

But His love did not end there. Afteward, the holy, innocent, sinless Son of God died the death of a murderous, God-hating criminal, the death we all should have died. On the cross, Jesus took the penalty for our sins upon Himself as the divine wrath of God fell upon Him. Yet through His death, He lovingly freed us from an eternity in hell. But it doesn’t end there, because on the third day, He rose from the grave and secured our redemption.

In the words of the apostle Paul, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Through Jesus’s life, death, burial, and resurrection, we who believe in Him have been reconciled to God and enjoy the joys and delights of eternal life. And all of this was given to us by God’s loving grace and goodness. So, whether you have plenty of earthly possessions to give this year or very little to share with others, know that you have more than enough to thank God for.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.