11/24/2022
Today we give thanks to our Lord for every manner of blessing from forgiveness and salvation to His comfort, peace, and provision. We are diverse in our relationship with Abba our Father; some walk closely with Him and find it easy to pray and thank him without ceasing. Others know Him, but not well enough to know how to thank Him properly. While there are those who believe that He is angry with them and that they are unworthy, and will not utter a word. Finally, there are the lost who don’t yet know God, and Jesus at all. Wherever we find ourselves in the gambit of belief and faith today this is the best day to speak with God and ask His Son Jesus to become our Savior and Redeemer. In this way we will be forgiven so that we can offer our thanks. We need to use this day that has been set aside to thank God as our motivation to repair, establish, or renew our relationship with Him.
“You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.”
Isaiah 12:1 ESV
Since Monday of this week we have been studying this topic of thanksgiving, and turning our attention inward as we examined our hearts. Now, today, let’s take what we have learned and apply it. Let’s remember what God has done for us, ask forgiveness, and offer thanks to Him as we should. Let’s use this day as an opportunity to know God and Jesus Christ for the first time, or, for those who already believe, to renew and invigorate our relationship with them. Then let’s thank our Heavenly Father, not simply because it is Thanksgiving day, but because there is never a better day to walk with Him and thank Him than today… no matter the day, hour, minute, or instant this is the perfect moment… NOW… to step into eternity. A momentary delay can cost us an eternity of joy and peace if by our hesitation we miss the instant of our changing.
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 ESV
Today as we gather together with family and friends before the world, and all of our enemies within it, let’s celebrate those things that our Heavenly Father has done for us, delivered us from, provided us with, and for His love that surrounds us. Today let’s sing, and offer praise to the almighty as we thank Him and glorify Him in the presence of all creation, because if we don’t do this then the rocks themselves will cry out. We hear this from Habakkuk…
“For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.”
Habakkuk 2:11 ESV
And Jesus said it Himself…
“He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””
Luke 19:40 ESV
Are we ready to sing praise, and offer up the gift of thanksgiving to God today? Are we prepared to make every instant of each day a time of prayer, and all days into Thanksgiving Day? I pray that every soul, household, country, and all peoples will thus turn to Our Lord today and thank Him as they should.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for all you do for us each day, and for hearing our voices as we call out to you for forgiveness. Let the blood of Jesus wash us and cleanse us of sin as we are prepared to come before you with our gift of thanksgiving. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was and is and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who extends your loving hand to all who will come to you and believe in Jesus. Praised be your name for your blessings, great and small, because all testify to you, and bring you glory. Today we lift you up in our homes so that our children will see and experience you, and we lift you up in the streets so that even our enemies will come to know you. Merciful are you whose will includes each of us, and whose grace falls on us all like a gentle spring rain. Open our eyes Jesus! Let the darkness fall from them like scales, and the light of the Lord pass both in and out of us like the tides. Holy Father judge us not for who we are, but for who we are becoming in Christ Jesus. Jesus is your greatest blessing to us, and the perfect object of our thanksgiving… for eternity. Hear us today, and all days as we extol you, and give you thanks from the depths of our hearts… our Father, our Lord, and our Creator.
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
Psalm 118:24, 28-29 ESV
Rich Forbes