Thanksgiving is a spiritual opportunity to become more aware of God’s grace, goodness and glory. Let’s explore a few passages that can add special meaning for us during this season:
Day One: Proverbs 27:23,24a; Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds; for riches do not last forever. Thanksgiving is also a good time for us to take stock of what we have and more importantly focus on how to better secure it. We need to pay close attention to the good things we have because if we don’t circumstances beyond our control can alter our sense of well being. For some reason, we human beings never seem to learn this lesson. When things are going good for us, we tend to take it for granted. For some reason, we just can’t imagine that business can slowdown, our job could be outsourced or our earning power could be diminished by illness or accident. In his sermon on the proper use of money, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism’s three points were: I. Make All You Can. II. Save All You Can. III. Give All You Can. Many years ago, a Christian bank president told me, “Bob, if you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves.” Both Wesley and the banker were saying what our text for today tell us, know well the condition of your flocks, give attention to your herds.
Day Two: Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget his benefits
In 2004 my wife wrote in her Thanksgiving column for the newsletter for Family Worship Now ministry (www.familyworshipnow.com),“No doubt you have read a few articles on the meaning of Thanksgiving during the past few weeks. You may have gathered an idea or two about how to make this Thanksgiving more meaningful. Last weekend, I was privileged to help celebrate my Great Aunt Mary’s 90th birthday. For those of us on the uphill side of 90 this may seem like a long journey, but one ninety-year-old told me a few years ago, “Ninety is not old when you get there!” One thing that I am thankful for is my family – young and old alike.
“At Thanksgiving we’ll get to see gratitude through multi-generational eyes. Some of us are just thankfully to occupy a little real estate, appreciate our health and have a smile that warms the room. Then there are our children that are learning all about gratitude and what it means to be thankful. As we model a thankful spirit, we teach the next generation the value of appreciating what seem to be the small things – which are really the big ones: Family, Friendship, Faith and even Forgetfulness for those little annoyances of others.
“You may want to pick up a drawing pad at the store and have everyone draw something for which they are thankful. It might me mom, dad, sister, brother or the cat or dog that is sketched on the pad. There could be a few surprises in the picture. This spontaneous expressions may mirror the soul.
Or everyone in the family could write in a journal those things for which they want to express gratitude. This could be an annual tradition. After a few years it would be fun to review the earlier entries in the journal.
“You may want to take a few minutes to go through your snap shots of the previous year and select several pictures and put them in a basket. Everyone can select one picture and share with the family why they are thankful for the person in the snapshot.
“Or you may want to write your favorite scripture verse about giving thanks or being thankful. One act of a thankful spirit might be committing those verses to memory.”
Day Three, Psalm 103:3; (One of God’s benefits is He) forgives all your iniquity, heals all your diseases… We often hear talk about original sin, but I prefer to follow the lead of Arminius. Arminius placed emphasis on what he called “original righteousness.” In the Adam and Eve story he saw not so much a paradise lost, but righteousness lost. When sin entered the world, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from Adam and Eve. The result was they saw a self they couldn’t love and a world they couldn’t cope with. They had lost their sense of who they were created to be. Each of us long for a good sense of who we are. When we look in the mirror each morning, we want to be able to feel that we are basically decent people. But when we live lives that are in conflict with God’s way and will such a feeling is hard to maintain. But God offers forgiveness for our wrongdoing and with that comes a restoration of his Holy Spirit. (for more information on Original Righteous, request a copy of a paper I presented a few years ago on the subject before a Theological by replying to this email).
Day Four: Psalm 50:14; Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving. The preceding verses of this Psalm remind us that the purpose of our “sacrifices” of time, money, etc. to God are not done to repay God, to receive something from Him, impress Him, or to strengthen our relationship with Him. Rather they are ways to show our appreciation for Who He is and what He has done for us. How can we offer this sacrifice of thanksgiving? One way is to make time each day to give thanks to God for all the “blessings” we can think of. Another way is to live out His love toward others in our daily pursuits.
Day Five, Psalm 103:4,5; (God) redeems your life from the Pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Hebrew people used the word “Pit” to describe a dark place where you felt trapped, squeezed in, utterly helpless. Not only does God forgive our iniquities and restores his Spirit to us, thereby giving us a self we can live with and respect; he also lifts us from the dark places. He literally “restores our vibrancy and confidence” in the midst of our troubles
Day Six: Psalm 50:23; Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me. When our lives are lived in perpetual gratitude toward God for his kindness and blessings toward us we find it easier to live out the principles of His kingdom because we truly know just how much He loves us and cares for us. This helps us go in the right way and experience His salvation in depth.
Day Seven: Colossians 4:2; Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. Does this mean that we should only pray prayers of thanksgiving to God? No, we know from other teachings on the subject that we are to pray about everything that concerns us. I think what Paul is saying is that the key to praying real, in-depth prayers is to keep ourselves alert to all the reasons we have to be thankful. Being alert to all God’s benefits and blessings bolsters our faith thus giving us both confidence and power when we bring our concerns before God.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
