This past Wednesday night i based my Bible study lesson on the old chorus that says, "Give thanks with a grateful heart..." and what exactly that means for us as born again believers; especially at this time of year.  I was searching various translations of the Scriptures for references where the word "grateful" is used...and much to my surprise, i only found it once.  In the NIV translation of Romans 16:4 which reads, "They risked their lives for me.  Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them."  The Greek word used here for "grateful" is the same word translated as "give thanks" or "thankful" in other translations. 

Obviously my one semester of Greek in college combined with one semester in seminary must have slipped away (SHOCKER!), because i forgot that the word translated as "grateful" or "give thanks" from Greek is "eucharisteo"...which sounds an awful lot like "eucharist", doesn't it?  Webster's dictionary defines "eucharist" as "spiritual communion with God".  This really got me thinking, how our giving thanks to God truly is a time of spiritual communion with Him. 

It is in giving thanks that we recognize the work of God's hand in our lives and in His creation; and that is best seen in a relationship with Him that comes by grace and through faith alone. 

This means thanking God in the "good" as well as the "bad", because if we are truly God's, then He is at work (Romans 8:28, Phil. 2:13) in any and all aspects of our lives.  That alone should garner our praise and thanksgiving to Him.  In fact, if you have experienced the life change that comes with salvation...that alone is worthy of praise and thanksgiving. 

So, do you feel like God is "distant" from you?  He is only as for as a word of "thanks" to Him.