Thanksgiving

       Thanksgiving In All Things

 

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thes. 5:16-18)

 

Give thanks for our blessings?  No, we are to give thanks for everything.  God blesses us always.  He makes all things good and we should give thanks in All Things.

 

The God of Everything at one point came down to our tiny planet.  Because He loved us, He chose to die so that we might live.  With our life, we give life to our precious children, and they are healthy.  We live in a time of the most prosperity in the history of the world.  We live in a time of great scientific advances.  We live in a country where no one has their pains untreated.  We live in the most generous country in the world.

 

Our country has had some of the darkest times in past history, but our God of Everything has brought us through to where we are.  Today we must recognize God in everything.  The Bible speaks of others people’s darkest hours. 

 

Jonah was running from God and caused a storm at sea.  The sailors threw him overboard and a big fish swallowed him.  Things looked dark and hopeless for Jonah.  Yet from inside the fish he prays: “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good.  Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).  Our Lord Jesus Christ shared his last meal with his disciples.  His heart was heavy with the suffering he had to face.  Yet he took the cup, gave thanks and shared it with his disciples.  He also took the bread, gave thanks and gave it to his disciples.  (Luke 22:17,19)

 

For what should we thank God?  First we need to thank God for the blessing of life.  God gave life to each person to enjoy for a certain period of time.  Our lives are not our own; they are God’s.  We must thank God for the privilege to live in God’s world.

 

Secondly we need to thank God for his love and salvation.  Psalms 100 says “Call out to the Almighty everyone on earth!  Serve God with gladness.  Come before Him with joyous song!  Know that the Almighty, He is God.  It is He who made us and we are His, His nation and the sheep of His pasture.  Enter His gates with thanksgiving.  Enter his courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name.  The Almighty is good.  His loving-kindness endures forever.  And His faithfulness continues from generation to generation.”

 

Thirdly we need to thank God for our eternal inheritance.  1 Peter 1:3-4 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never period, spoil or fade is kept in heaven for you.”

 

Fourthly we need to thank God for His holy mission.  Sometimes an easygoing life seems best.  Actually, an easygoing life is truly miserable.  God did not create us to sit around doing nothing.  God made us to do something great and meaningful.  One who has a holy mission in Jesus has an abundant life.  Abundant life is not living in a mansion.  Abundant life is in Jesus Christ.  Paul wrote, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:10)                                         

 

Fifthly we need to thank God for blessing our nation.  In the late 1620 a group of Christians called Pilgrims came to America to establish a Christian community to worship God freely and become “a city upon a hill” – a model society that would reveal God’s glory to all nations.  In their first winter, they were down to 5 corn grains per meal.  Half of them died.  But they kept their faith in God and their love for one another.  The next fall they reaped an abundant harvest and shared a feast with their friendly Indian neighbors.  First they ate 5 corn grains, giving thanks to God who was with them.  This was the first Thanksgiving.  We give thanks to God for establishing our nation for His holy purpose.  We give thanks to God for savings us and using us to make this great nation a blessing to all nations.

 

Let us be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus.



A Thanksgiving Proclamation
October 3, 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd day of October, A.D. 1789.