A Christian is commanded to give thanks always, and surely it is of special importance to set apart a day when we make public our thanksgiving to God for His abundant blessings.
In Ephesians 5: 18-20, we are given the following exhortation to holy living,” … be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In Philippians 4:6, we are commanded, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
In Colossians 3: 16-17, we are told, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Colossians 4:2 says, “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”
1 Timothy 2:1-2, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
Psalm 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
So I would encourage every Christian to get ready in heart for Thanksgiving Day. The thankful Christian will be a happy Christian, for as he counts his blessings, he will see how blessed of God he is. The thankful Christian will honour God who “giveth and giveth and giveth again”-even to ungrateful hearts.
HEZEKIAH’S GREAT REVIVAL AND THANKSGIVING
In 2 Chronicles 29, we read how King Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah. The temple was abandoned and dirty. Levites had gone about other business instead of keeping the temple and offering the sacrifices. Hezekiah called the Levites back to the service of God, had the temple cleaned up, and the sacrifices restored; and God sent a spiritual revival. The elders of the city brought seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom. They killed the sacrifices and, the people confessing their sinfulness, were reconciled to God.
What a time of rejoicing followed! Hezekiah ” … set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by His prophets” (2 Chronicles 29:25). The priests joined with the trumpets, “And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt-offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel” (2 Chronicles 29 :27).
So the singers sang and the trumpet was sounded and the great burnt offering continued, ” … And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a free heart burnt-offerings. And the number of the burnt-offerings, which the congregation brought, was threescore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep” (2 Chronicles 29:31-33).
There were not enough priests to slay and dress these animals for the sacrifices, so the Levites helped them. What a revival!
Here the Bible reminds us, as it so often does, that a thankful heart is a giving heart. Thank offerings go with thanksgiving.
God makes the connection of the thank offering and thanksgiving very clear in Psalm 50:14, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High.” Then follows the blessed promise to the person who is thankful and pays his vows, ” … call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psalm 50: 15).