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Thanksgiving Is Of all the Holidays we celebrate in this country
Thanksgiving is the closest to being Biblical. In fact, Abraham Lincoln in 1863
instituted this As we think about our blessings we need to be thankful for
all that we have received. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation
or shadow of turning” (James 1.17). Many times we can read of people giving
God thanks for His kindness and mercy. Jesus gave thanks before breaking the
bread when feeding the 4,000. “And He took the seven loaves and the fish and
gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave
to the multitude” (Matt 15:36). He also gave thanks while observing the
Passover and then instituting the “Lord’s Supper” in Matthew 26. We need to remember that being thankful is not a day but a
way of life. A person that is not thankful each and every day is not truly
thankful on the forth Thursday in November. We need to appreciate the great
blessings of life each day. The blessing of having family and loved ones around
us is truly something to be thankful for. We are blessed with a level of
prosperity that is the envy of the world around us. We have homes the size of
mansions, televisions in most rooms, electronic games, medical care, central
heat, air conditioning, food in the frig, and more clothes than needed. This is
just a partial list but you get the idea. We have been blessed. The greatest blessing is the gift
God sent in the form of His Son who died on the cross for our sins.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved)…For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2.4-5, 8). The two
words that stand out to me in the above verses are the words “But God.” Man
was deserving of death “but God” gave His Son to die for you and me. It was
because “but God” that our children, our family, and our neighbors can be
saved. We
can be thankful on “Thanksgiving Day” because we are thankful each day of
our lives. – Dennis Tucker |