Two things bring great satisfaction to any parent: trust and gratitude. God feels the same and His children bring Him glory when they believe what He says and give thanks for every blessing.
Abraham glorified God by believing Him. “I know this is God’s promise and He will never lie to me. So if He says my wife and I will have a baby, I’ll believe Him… even if we are approaching our hundredth birthdays!”
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waiver in unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.” (Romans 4:18-21)
If we smile when our children say ‘Thank you,’ what does God feel? David sang, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please Him more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.” (Psalm 69:30-31) The Father is glorified when we are thankful.
Thanksgiving should overflow from everything God has done, is doing, and will do through His Son. We believe God loved us enough to die for us. We believe Jesus carried our sins and our ‘old selves’ as He died on the cross. We believe He fulfilled the Law completely, knowing that we could never be saved through our own efforts. We believe He has declared us righteous and holy. We believe He was raised from the dead on the third day and that we need not fear death. We believe Jesus ascended back to heaven after forty days on earth as a resurrected Savior. We believe the Holy Spirit was poured out and is given as a gift to the saved. We believe Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us today. And we believe our Lord is coming back again to take us to a place He has prepared.
“Impossible!” the world cries. “But this is what God says… and He cannot lie. I will trust Him completely… and give thanks.”
“It is written: ‘I believed, therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” II Corinthians 4:13-15