No, I’m not talking about the Thanksgiving day sport of stuffing our faces then watching football and stuffing our faces some more. Anyone can do that. I’m talking about the real point of the feast we know as Thanksgiving, which is giving gratitude unto the Lord. For that I say, a real heart of thanksgiving is not for the meek.
When we gather around that November table it’s easy to thank God for this feast and forget the other 364 days since our last feast. Yet the words of the apostle Paul to the Thessalonican church tell us to do just that, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
When you think about that it is a pretty tall order, “In everything give thanks.” As you look back on this last year no doubt it was a year filled with both highs and lows. This past year in our family we experienced the joy of new life, and we felt the pain death. We had health as well as sickness. There was feast and there was famine, joy and sorrow. My guess is that describes a typical year for most of us. As we gather around the Thanksgiving table we are called to give thanks for all of it.
The Bible carries this idea one step deeper and this is where we separate, “the, men from the boys” so to speak. Notice that the word says “’IN’ everything give thanks.” That means as you stand on the mountain top, you are to give thanks and while you are in the “pit,” well we are to give thanks there as well. All to often we relegate our thanksgiving to an annual feast. Yet God clearly expects that we as the recipients of the love and grace of God are to live with an “overflowing” attitude of thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6) that is the same in the valleys of life as well as when we are on the mountain tops
In our thanksgiving we glorify God. “I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30). In our thanksgiving we honor God “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me…” (Psalm 50:23). In everything give thanks.
