Dave’s Monday Blast – November 30, 2020
I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving event with family and friends!
Thanksgiving is an odd holiday for secular Americans. When asked what Thanksgiving means to them personally, Americans rank “to be thankful” behind “to spend time with the family.” Our families are tangible, and we enjoy sharing a generic feeling of gratitude with them. However, this feeling passes quickly when the turkey is consumed and the football game is over. The reason Thanksgiving is not more memorable for more people is that many misunderstand its true nature and significance.
Scripture calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (Thessalonians 5:18). We are to “give” thanks, not “feel” thanks. The holiday is Thanksgiving not Thanksfeeling.
True thanksgiving requires an object, just like friendship or love. We do not feel friendship generically, we feel friendship toward a friend. We do not feel love in an abstract or impersonal sense, we feel love for a person we love. The problem is that to give thanks ultimately requires us to acknowledge the existence and relevance of the God to whom we owe such thanks. There is something spiritual about true thanksgiving. This is a dilemma for secular people. They want the experience of thanksgiving without the reality upon which it is based.
Why does God seek our gratitude? His Word says “give thanks to the Lord” (Psalm 107:1); “offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 50:14); and to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15). These are INTENTIONAL choices by obedient children.
Pastor Jim Denison of the Denison Forum comments: “Giving thanks to God is best for us. When we take the time to recognize how much God has given us by His unmerited favor and to express genuine gratitude for such grace, we position ourselves as creatures before our Creator with the humility that seeks what we cannot earn but only receive. If we acknowledge that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), we will open our hearts and hands to receive His best.”
How will you respond to His grace today my brothers?
