Thankful

THANKFUL

    Pastor David Jeremiah said, "The Bible tells us that whenever we come before God, whatever our purpose or prayer request, we are always to come with a thankful heart."

    The Holy Bible is full of verses speaking of the importance of giving thanks to our Creator.  Psalm 100 is a classic:  "Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!  Serve the Lord with gladness...Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.  Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.  For the Lord is good..."  

    We should be thankful every single day of the year, but this special day we call Thanksgiving Day has been handed down to us through the generations -- and that too is something to be thankful for.  The history of Thanksgiving in America is believed to have begun in the early 1600s.  Several days of thanks were celebrated by the Pilgrims in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving," in 1621, but there was also a well-recorded Thanksgiving event held in 1619 in Virginia.  While we may not know the official origin of the holiday, we do know that George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.”

    Amen to George's proclamation!  The Psalmist also echoes these sentiments, writing, "Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.  For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods," 95:2-3.

     The picture I chose for this post comes from a recent visit to the Bennett Farm in Durham, NC, where a Union and a Confederate General got together in April 26,1865, and negotiated a peace settlement that completely ended the Civil War (this was after Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9).  The picture shows a peaceful corner of the Bennett's simple farmhouse.  No doubt, there was much to be thankful for on that day when these two men signed papers that finally ended a horrible time in the history of our nation.

    We have much to be thankful for!  I like the old hymn written in 1897 by Johnson Oatman, Jr., that says, "Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done...count your many blessings see what God has done."

    Henry Ward Beecher was a preacher in the 1800s.  He wrote: “The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!” 

    A.W. Tozer was a pastor and a writer in the 1900s.  He wrote:  "Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it," 

    We end with words of the apostle Paul who was a preacher way back in the first century.  He wrote:  "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

    Throughout history, we are reminded how important it is to be thankful.  What are you thankful for today?