November 26, 2020
Happy Thanksgiving!
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
There are several themes which run throughout the Holy Scriptures. Themes of mercy, grace, and the loving rule of God. These themes ring true for our lives no matter where we are on the journey of faith. But this one statement; seen above, doesn’t just run a theme, it is a response. We see this response repeated again and again throughout the history of the people of Israel. It’s a common phrase we see in the psalms as well as something people would sing or shout as they enter into battle, or because they survived such battle. The response is this; that in all things we should give thanks to the Lord because of His goodness and His enduring love that has no end.
Can we imagine a world in which we gave constant praise to God? Perhaps we live in such world, at least in our inner selves because we are grateful for all that the Lord has done to bless us. However, to contemplate being thankful in all things, or in all situations, is a challenge. We constantly are in need for something new from God, that we would have reason to give thanks. Yet, in God’s enduring love, we have already received the blessing for which we should give our eternal thanks and praise. Honestly, I don’t think there is anything we have that we can offer God besides our thankfulness. There is no possible way we can repay God for the all the great things He has done for us, therefore we can only humble ourselves in gratitude to His majestic and enduring love that has no end; for He is good!
Today, on this day of gratitude and thanks, I invite you to pray a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings you have received, and I want to challenge you to reach out to someone, a family member, a friend, maybe another church member. Let them know that they are a blessing in your life, send them a text, email, card, call them. I hope that we might all hear words of thankfulness today, that gratitude would swell up, and we would be reminded, in all things, to “give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.”
Many blessed thanks to you, from my family to yours this Thanksgiving day!
Grace & Peace,
Sam