Thankfulness

By Eric Davis. Reposted from The Cripplegate.

That beloved American holiday is upon us. It’s almost Thanksgiving. The day before Thanksgiving is considered the busiest travel day of the year for Americans as we herd ourselves around friends and family. So, whether you’re catching a connecting flight, waiting for TSA, sitting in a traffic jam, or on your way to grandma’s, here are a few brief thoughts to prime the pump for a day of giving thanks.

God does a lot for all of us. Numbers help define what “a lot” means. That’s why I like numbers. They help me visualize things. And in the case of giving thanks, they help put God’s kindness into perspective.

Here are a few numbers to help us.

By the time you hit 30 years old:

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

(ESV)

The command

God commands us to give Him thanks for everything He has done, is doing and will do for us. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (NKJV, Phil. 4:6).

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men” (1 Tim. 2:1). “Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20).

The problem

But this is not the normal response of the sinful heart of man. Even in times of health and prosperity, do we genuinely thank God for what He has given us?

Originally posted November, 2006.

To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

It’s been 383 years since Governor William Bradford called the Pilgrims to the first Thanksgiving celebration in the New World. 156 years later, after a long, hard war for independence, our first President, George Washington, called the United States of America to a day of thanksgiving: