WHY I AM THANKFUL...EVERY DAY

WHY I AM THANKFUL…EVERY DAY

Today we celebrate the American national holiday known as “Thanksgiving Day.”  This commemoration was launched unofficially by a group of Pilgrims who left England on September 6, 1620.  After a rather rough two-month sea voyage, they landed at the site that would later be designated as Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Due to the extreme harshness of their first winter in The New World (and a profound lack of preparation), one-half of these settlers died by the spring of 1621. 

Nevertheless, they were blessed to receive the skillful assistance of Native Americans, who helped them to plant crops and prepare adequately for their second winter.  With profound gratitude to God for an overflowing harvest, the Pilgrims held a three-day feast, commencing December 13, 1621.  The governor of the fledgling Massachusetts Colony dispatched four men who hunted for enough fowl and deer to feed everyone.  The Native Americans celebrated alongside, with a large aggregation led by King Massasoit and ninety men.  Pilgrim Edward Winslow recorded the colonial proclamation of that day, which stated that “by the goodness of God…we are far from want.” 

President Abraham Lincoln officially inaugurated Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday in 1863, midway through the American Civil War.  Today in the USA, Thanksgiving has become the most traveled day of the year.  Multiplied millions take to the airways and highways to share a festive family day centered on food and fellowship, with the traditional turkey at the heart of the culinary feast.

It has often been said that, for Christians, every day should be a day of thanksgiving.  The Word of God clearly agrees and admonishes the believer, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thessalonians 5:18) 

In that thankful frame of mind, please allow me to share a few things for which I am eternally grateful to our God.  Words cannot describe how much I treasure God’s grace and mercy, reflected in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son.  Jesus, I thank you for living and dying (and living again) for me.  And I am grateful for the gift of exceptional and Godly parents, who raised ten children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and with sufficient capacities to succeed in this world system, and beyond.  I thank God for the siblings that I dearly love (four sisters and five brothers) and the fact that all of us, save one, are yet in the land of the living.

I am so grateful, Lord, for my phenomenal wife, my gifted children, my twelve ‘sainted’ grandchildren (who can do no wrong), and for one adorable great-granddaughter.  I am highly favored and truly blessed.

Thank You, Lord, for a reasonable portion of health and strength.  Thank You for the use and activity of my limbs.  Thank You for the ability to speak, to hear, to feel, to smell and to see.  Thank You for our lovely home, our cars, our clothes, our income and our ability to meet our financial obligations.

Thank You for the significant Kingdom ministry that you have assigned to my wife and I.  Thank You for giving us compassion and a burden for souls.  Thank You for endowing us with the will, energy and resources to do our part in fulfilling The Great Commission via global missions.  Thank You for the fruit of the Spirit.  Thank You for the gifts of the Spirit.  Thank You for a solid education, for the ability to think, to reflect, to evaluate and to make sound judgments.  Thank You for the ability to write with clarity and creativity and the anointing to teach and proclaim your Word with simplicity and sincerity.

Thank You for your encouragement, direction and instruction in righteousness.  Thank You for allowing me to be called by Your Name – a Christian, one of Your People.  Thank You for “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Timothy 3:15)  Thank You for your limitless love and your infinite kindness.  Thank You for picking me up whenever I fall.  Thank You for Your blood that cleanses me, your Spirit that teaches me, your Word that strengthens me and your people who edify me.

Thank You for all the things that I have been through (pluses and minuses), the experiences that have shaped me and positioned me for serving others.  Thank You that I am still standing.  I am so grateful, Lord, and I thank YOU…in all things…and for all things.  JESUS, what a WONDER You are!  THANK YOU!!!  Sisters and brothers, on this Thanksgiving Day, and every day, be eternally grateful and be continually blessed!