THANKSGIVING

As we celebrate our national holiday tomorrow perhaps it would be a good time to ask ourselves the question: Why should we be thankful?

The Bible gives us several reasons why we should be thankful.
1. Because of God's attributes.
A) Goodness—Psa. 7:17—I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
B) Unfailing, eternal love—1 Ch. 16:34—Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psa. 107:8—Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men,
C) Power:
In protection—Psa. 28:7—The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.
In helping us—Psa 118:21—I will give you thanks, for You answered me; You have become my salvation. 1Ti. 1:12—I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service.
Over sin and death—1 Co. 15:56,57—The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Because we become a testimony to others which glorifies God.
1 Chr 16:8—Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.
2 Cor 4:15—All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

3. Because we are a family in Christ
Php 1:3—I thank my God every time I remember you.
Col 1:3—We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

4. Because we are saved and will inherit an eternal kingdom
Col 1:12-14—Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Heb 12:28—Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

5. Because God wants us to be thankful!
1 Th 5:18—Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

How should we be thankful?
1. In our prayer life
Phil 4:6—Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Col 4:2—Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
1 Ti. 2:1—I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-

Alexander Whyte, the Scottish preacher, always began his prayers with an expression of gratitude. One cold, miserable day his people wondered what he would say. He prayed, "We thank Thee, O Lord, that it is not always like this."

2. In our behavior
Eph 5:4—Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
Col 3:17—And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (notice our focus should always be on Christ)

3. In our attitude
Col. 2:6,7—So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Col 3:15—Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Dr. Gary Demarest who wrote a commentary on the book of Colossians writes, "This peace is not the absence of conflict. It is inner poise in the midst of the storms of life. And so to live is the source of continuing gratitude. To know Christ is to be thankful."

Bible commentator Matthew Henry, after being robbed, wrote this in his diary:
Let me be thankful...
* first because I was never robbed before.
* second, because although they took my wallet they did not take my life.
* third, because although they took my all, it was not much.
* fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.

Application:
We would do well to ponder the words Abraham Lincoln gave us in his THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION 1863

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.