This week we will observe a national holiday we call Thanksgiving. Now to some people, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday and to others it is firmly rooted in a special relationship we have with a living God. I am a believer in the latter. Thanksgiving is a special time of the year when we take a moment to say, “Thank you, Lord.” It is a time of year when we look at our blessings and we pause to thank God for the wonders of His great love for us and for the riches that He pours onto us daily.
Psalm 100 is a short book in the bible of only five verses. It is a Psalm of Thanksgiving. We are urged make a joyful shout to the Lord (verse 1), then to serve the Lord with gladness (verse 2). We are reminded that God made us—we didn’t make ourselves, and we are his people and the sheep of His pasture (verse 3). Then we are urged to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise (verses 4 and 5). Be thankful to Him and to bless His holy name.
So, I will look at Thanksgiving the way God asks us to see Him—to give thanks with a grateful heart, giving what is due to Whom it is due. I imagine the early settlers in America had some hard times those first years, so they created this day to give thanks for all the things that God did that they couldn’t do. He gave them rain when it was needed; safety when it was needed; healing when the doctor wasn’t there; a harvest when it was needed; shelter when it was needed; help when it was needed; seed when it was needed; protection when it was needed; friends when they were needed; clean water when it was needed; bread when it was needed; clothes when they were needed; Love because it is always needed; and Jesus because He is all that is needed.
Thanksgiving is more than a turkey dinner with all the trimmings that you get to share with family and friends who share your life throughout the year. Thanksgiving is a spirit of life that says I will give to God all that I should, and I’m going to give Him the one thing too that is all I need to give Him. Because like Jesus is all that we need, giving God your life and your grateful thanks is all that you can give Him that He hasn’t already given you.
So, marry gratefulness with thankfulness and go to Him to give Him thanks because of all that He has done for us. Be grateful for it all because He didn’t have to do anything for us. Thank You Lord; I am grateful to be one of your people to dwell as a sheep in your pasture. You didn’t have to do it for me, but You did. I thank You for that and I am grateful for what it all means to me.
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