True Thanksgiving

Someone has defined Thanksgiving as “our annual time for saying grace at the table of eternal goodness.” Just as some people neglect to say grace before their meals, so some have forgotten the meaning of Thanksgiving.

It is good to remember that “think” and “thank” come from the same root. We need only to think in order to be thankful. Yet ingratitude is one of the most common sins of our time. The inability to feel and express gratitude shuts off blessings God would otherwise freely give. Dwight H. Small writes, “How can God lavish His blessing and power upon the heart that is so dominated by self as to be incapable of reciprocating with proper gratitude? Grave indeed is the sin of ingratitude which withholds the blessing of God from oneself and from others.”

When George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation, he said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection.” This is a good summary of the duty of all nations today.

We can all be thankful for what we acquire, and what we avoid. We can be thankful for what we experience, and for what we escape. We can be thankful for what we have, and for the blows which do not come. But let us not make the mistake of tying our thanksgiving to material blessings alone.

The basis of a true spirit of thanksgiving is not material at all, but spiritual. It is based on the love and mercy of God, on the joy of the Lord, on the forgiveness of sins, and the cleanness of heart. It grows out of freedom from corroding care, and the peace of God which” … shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

No portion of our Bible is more full of expressions of praise and thanksgiving than the Psalms. Yet these sparkling anthems of praise were written by men who suffered bitter persecution, who risked and, at times, lost all they had, who lived in a little kingdom constantly skirting the edge of disaster, and whose standard of living

would make the poorest of our day seem almost like millionaires in comparison. Still they offered ” … the sacrifice of thanksgiving … ” (Psalm 116: 17) from full hearts.

What a shame it is then to us if we do less! To us has been given God’s unspeakable gift, and He who has not withheld His own Son,” … but delivered him up for us all … “, will certainly with” … him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32). Let us then be thankful, and make sure that in appropriate ways we say “grace at the table of eternal goodness.”