Thanksgiving
At the time of this writing, we are coming up on Thanksgiving Day. This holiday officially became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln made a “proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to ‘commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife’ and to ‘heal the wounds of the nation” This day was to be celebrated the final Thursday in November until it was changed when President Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday one week early to spur sales during the Great Depression.
This holiday is one that has it’s roots in thanking God. However, we have come a long way from this. Our more modern celebration of Thanksgiving is one of family, food, football and shopping. If we were more direct, we could use biblical terms of gluttony, idolatry and covetousness.
You might think after reading that last line, wow, you are hard. Yes, maybe. However, have we lost our focus on this holiday? After all, this is a day set aside for thanksgiving unto God. Yet, when we read the Word of God, we find Paul tell Timothy the following:
II Timothy 3:1-5
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
In the last days, the days before the return of Jesus there are going to be troublesome times. We will see selfishness, indulgence, arrogancy, no more honoring of parents, immorality, and other ungodly characteristics rampant in society. The one I would like to focus on is “unthankful”. The people in the last days are going to be an unthankful people.
First, what does it mean to be thankful? According to webster, it is: grateful; impressed with a sense of kindness received ready to acknowledge it. Webster also defines thanksgiving as: The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
In turn, we should acknowledge, with thanks, what God has done for us. For it is through His mercy and grace we can be saved. It is His continual care which provides for us. He provides us with food, shelter and clothing. Do we take at least one day a year and sincerely show Him our gratitude? Do we thank him for the great salvation He has provided? Are we thankful for taking us out of the depths of sin?
However, many can be unthankful or ungrateful. Do we just spend our time expecting we should have everything with no thought of gratitude? Have we adopted an entitlement attitude, where we have our rights and feel we are owed everything?
This year, let us take some time to sincerely thank God for His provisions. Let us have an attitude of gratitude for the salvation He has provided for us and not allow the spirit of this age, unthankfulness, come into our hearts.
I Chronicles 16:34
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
