By PAUL J. SCHARF, M.Div.
Editor in Chief
Thanksgiving is a very profound holiday based upon a very simple concept.
Give thanks.
That is the sum and substance of the holiday that we celebrate on Thursday of this week.
In fact, the mandate it assigns to us is so uncomplicated that you can fulfill your obligation to it individually, or in connection with a large gathering. You can practice thankfulness at home—or thousands of miles away. You could be resting at grandmother’s house, or serving in a rescue mission.
You can join hands with your extended family to give thanks around a bountiful table bursting with sumptuous fare. Or you can say a prayer of gratitude over a plate of pizza and chips before you turn up the volume on the game.
You can find all kinds of promptings to help you if you need them—a church service, a message online, a book or a song.
The most important thing is that you do it… that you really do give thanks.
You can center your “sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15) around a year of abundant blessings—or establish it in the midst of desperation, even destitution.
As the Apostle Paul stated: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). He further instructed that “thanksgiving” is to be offered “in everything by prayer and supplication” (Phil. 4:6)—this being the antidote for all anxiety.
Perhaps during the year that is now passing, the Lord has even supplied for your needs by what our Pilgrim Fathers would have called His “unusual providences.” Maybe it was a gracious act of such magnitude that, without it, you would have been rendered powerless even to give thanks this week. Yet, you did not work for such a marvelous provision, or even pray for it—nor could you have even known what to ask for if you had tried. However, at just the right time—and without a moment to spare—He poured out His blessing upon you.
“What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?” (Ps. 116:12).
Give thanks.
If you have not taken time to do that recently, this week offers you the perfect opportunity to correct your course.
For all of us at Dispensational Publishing House, Happy Thanksgiving! May this holiday week be spiritually significant and meaningful—even memorable—as you take time to consider all that God has done for you in the past year—the year of our own beginning, for which we are deeply grateful.
Give thanks.
Copyright © 2015 Dispensational Publishing House, Inc.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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