Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Image:  designbolts.com

    This week we celebrate with the rest of America the Thanksgiving holiday.  We hear often of the "First Thanksgiving" with the Pilgrims and Squanto. Rightfully so.  Did you know that Thanksgiving did not become an official American holiday until 1863?  My children have been studying the Civil War recently and learning about one of the most Godly men to lead our nation, President Abraham Lincoln.  President Lincoln was the one to proclaim that the last Thursday in November become a national holiday.  In the midst of tragedy, war, and national conflict, he realized that our country desperately needed to pause to give thanks to our Creator.  If you have never read this Proclamation (as I had not until this past week), I urge you to take a minute to read it.  You can read it in its entirety here. 

    We hear frequently about the Biblical commands to give thanks, as well we should.  The "attitude of gratitude" is much more than saying a quick, "Thank you."  It is a lifestyle of living every moment in the realization that our Father is the giver of all good things, even life itself.  We should acknowledge this and give Him praise at all times!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  James 1:17 NIV

    What struck me about President Lincoln's proclamation was the call to give thanks as a nation for the blessings given by God, while humbly repenting for the sins of our country and praying for repentance, healing and unity.  

"It has seemed to me fit and proper that they {blessings} should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union."  excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

    This is what makes Thanksgiving so beautiful.  The joining together of family and friends for the purpose of praising God and praying for our nation.  Corporate thanksgiving is Biblical and our gracious God delights in it.  

  From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my  vows.  The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him --  may your hearts live forever!  All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him.  Psalm 22:25-27 NIV

    Equally as important, as President Lincoln reminded America almost 160 years ago, is joining together in repentance and prayer for the hurting. God calls us to do this as well. 

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.   2 Chronicles 7:15 NIV

    My prayer this week is that we, as the body of Christ, will join together this week in thankfulness for our many undeserved blessings as well as praying for our country to repent and receive the peace and unity that our God longs to give us.  

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you.  

💓Heather Sparks💓