Thanksgiving arises from gratitude and, in turn, brings forth praise. Praise means to value or price, to express a favorable judgment of, which requires thinking and evaluating. Thus, praise is the joyous expression of thoughtful gratitude and thanksgiving for blessings, help, or favors given, all rooted in thinking directed toward God. Unless the mind is exercised daily in this, it will not be in the habit of considering God in relation to blessings, leaving it virtually empty of thoughts of gratitude, thankfulness, and praise. Hebrews 13:15 states, Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Thanks and praise are so closely linked in the Bible that they almost seem to be the same, though they are not. Praise grows out of thanksgiving, moving from being grateful to God to extolling, lauding, commending, and acclaiming Him for His works, purpose, and nature. Paul describes them as a sacrifice, involving giving up time, energy, and effort to think about, thank, and praise God for the good He has done, time which could have been spent on oneself or taken for granted as a right or privilege.

Sacrifice, praise, and thanksgiving are intricately linked as major responsibilities of a priest within the priesthood under Jesus Christ. Sacrifice is a fundamental duty, and among the sacrifices a priest offers are praise and thanksgiving. Though often not considered as sacrifices, they indeed are, carrying significant weight in fulfilling priestly roles. Praise is defined as expressing admiration and approval for God, with synonyms like acclaim, applaud, extol, honor, endorse, and bless. It reflects a call to bless the Lord with one's life. Gratitude is the readiness to show appreciation and return kindness, while thanksgiving is the external expression of that internal gratitude. Gratitude precedes thanksgiving and is a necessary component of both praise and thanksgiving. Giving thanks and praising God serves multiple purposes. First, it keeps the focus in the right direction, ensuring that attention remains on God as the Creator and the source of all marvelous things in life. Without this acknowledgment, there is a risk of turning to idolatry, worshiping created things instead of the Creator. Maintaining this focus requires effort, thinking within certain parameters, meditating on God's attributes, and praying about them. Second, thinking about God and thanking Him supports and strengthens faith. It makes one more aware of His presence everywhere, reinforcing trust in His powerful and saving characteristics. This process builds confidence in His ability to transform and save. Third, thanksgiving has a strong tendency to foster humility. Pride, the major hindrance to thankfulness, elevates the self and obscures God's handiwork, grace, compassion, and mercy. By contrast, focusing on God through thanksgiving and praise helps maintain a humble perspective, recognizing one's dependence on Him and countering the dangers of prosperity, pride, and forgetfulness that lead to sin. These elements—thanksgiving, praise, and humility—are inseparable. Meditating on God's attributes provides an opportunity to be truly humble before Him, producing an honest evaluation of oneself in relation to Him. This cycle of thought and expression completes itself through submission to His will, aligning one's conduct with the biblical standard of humility before God.

Praise and thanksgiving are described as a sacrifice to God, akin to the fruit of our lips, a product born from diligent work. This sacrifice is an essential element of effective prayer, integral to Christian life alongside joy and prayer. Thanksgiving should remain steadfast, not swayed by changing circumstances or personal feelings. God does not command us to thank Him for every event, especially painful or evil occurrences, as He is not the author of evil, though He creates calamity. Instead, we are instructed to give thanks in every circumstance, recognizing His sovereignty over our lives and His conscious decisions regarding our paths. This perspective encourages us to seek the good in any situation and work toward achieving it with gratitude. Even in painful circumstances resulting from sin or foolishness, we are not to thank God for the sin itself but for His love and discipline, which aim to humble us and prevent recurrence. We can express gratitude for His patience and grace, for not destroying us but offering chances to learn and turn things around. Thanks are given for the potential good that can emerge from adverse situations, acknowledging that God's creation in us continues to progress. This act of giving thanks is not because God demands adoration out of ego, but because He is love, and all He commands or permits is for our ultimate good. Thanksgiving supports true faith by focusing our attention on the Creator rather than the created. It requires a perspective shaped by humility and a clear recognition of our spiritual poverty compared to His richness. This recognition, often prepared by God through trials that expose our weaknesses, motivates us to cry out to Him for what He can supply and to offer praise from a proper viewpoint. Pride, however, stands as the greatest hindrance to effective praise and thanksgiving, forcing a self-centered focus that distorts reality and inhibits a full understanding of God's intimate involvement in our lives. Gratitude, the internal condition of heart and mind, precedes and sets the stage for thanksgiving, the outward expression of kindness and appreciation. Where gratitude exists, true faith can flourish, keeping it alive and growing amidst life's burdens. Ingratitude, conversely, leads to a waning of faith and the flourishing of sin, particularly pride. The natural response to recognizing a Creator should be to glorify Him with praise and thanksgiving for the awesomeness of what He is and does, yet human nature often suppresses this inclination, failing to carry through with thoughtful meditation on His works and purpose. Thanksgiving in prayer requires preparation and work, rooted in thinking from a God-created perspective. God sets the stage by humbling us, not merely to alleviate painful problems, but to enable us to perceive Him in the events of our lives. Through this, we evaluate circumstances in the light of His love, wisdom, and perfection, bringing forth a torrent of praise and thanksgiving for what He is doing, confident that when He is finished, we will be like Him. Those who embrace this practice meditate to ensure their prayers are thoughtfully prepared and enriched with honest thanksgiving.