Not What Are You Thankful For, But Who Are You Thankful to?

 

By Clint Bishard

Jesus Created Ministries

 

            What is Thanksgiving?  A time to be together with family and friends?  A time to get stuffed eating some great food?  A time for us to stop and think about all of the things we have to be thankful for?  Thanksgiving has become all of these things to us today.  Yet, more important than the question of “What is Thanksgiving?” is the question “Who are we thankful to?”.  The object of our thankfulness is much more important than just being thankful. 

Unfortunately, I believe many in our nation will once again enjoy Thanksgiving without giving thanks to the only One who is truly worthy of thanks.  This is the habit of men, as Abraham Lincoln noted in the first few lines of his declaration in 1863 making Thanksgiving an official national holiday:

 

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come…Almighty God.”[1]

 

The proper focus for Thanksgiving was also noted much earlier just after the founding of our country.  The first section of George Washington’s 1789 proclamation of Thanksgiving makes this very clear:

 

“WHEREAS 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 and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"[2]

 

Hopefully, this Thanksgiving, every Christian in our land will have their hearts properly focused on the One who is the real reason to be thankful.  For “¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. ¹⁸Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:17-18).