Psalm 100:1-5
This past Thursday was a very special day as it is every year at this time. It is a day when we focus on remembering just how good God has been to us as a nation over the 250 plus years we have been in existence. But this special day commemorates something older than our country. It is a time when we remember just how hard it was for the founders of this great nation of ours.
It was not an easy task to bring the United States into existence. Many of the first settlers died the very first year they were on the soil of America. They knew very little about surviving the harsh elements of the super cold winter in our country. There were a lot of funerals and if the native American Indians had not befriended the settlers, there would have been many more funerals. If not for their help in instructing the settlers how to farm and raise food, I’m sure that many more of our forefathers would have died.
We all know the story of the first Thanksgiving. It was for the purpose of thanking God for sustaining our forefathers and bringing them through the harsh elements with little food and supplies. From a human standpoint, the Indians were the ones who made the difference as to whether the settlers survived or not. The people decided to have a feast and to thank God for his everlasting faithfulness to them.
The first official Thanksgiving was declared by Abrahem Lincoln in 1863. The Civil War was raging and there seemed little to be thankful for but Lincoln saw the need for a time to thank Almighty God for His goodness to the nation during the war years.
This little piece is not meant to be a history lesson. Generally, people know about how Thanksgiving got stated. It is meant to bring our focus back to thankfulness which, it seems, we have forgotten to practice as a nation. Millions of people are thankful, but, as a country, we seem to have forgotten God and certainly forgotten that we should be thankful to Him for all that we are or ever will be. It doesn’t portray thankfulness to banish Him from our public discourse and push Him to the edges of our society and that is exactly what we have done. In earlier days our people knew they could not survive unless God was with them and sustaining them. Today, we have so much and have become so “brilliant” that our people think that they no longer need God. If they thought that he is essential to our survival, they would not treat Him and His Laws so flippantly as is done today. Throughout the Bible, and especially the prophetic books, one of the reasons that the people were punished so often was they were not thankful to the Lord for all that He had done for them. They did not remember all of His blessings, provisions and guidance in their lives. God wants us to be thankful for all of the things He has done for us when He didn’t have to do any of it. He was gracious beyond measure to the people of Israel and they turned their back on Him and worshipped their “gods” that were made by their own hands. They forgot Him.
The number of people in America today who love, worship and exalt Him is dwindling. The level of respect and honor given to God by our people of today is falling to a new low. Even our worship has taken on the aspects of the world and copies what can be found in a rock concert. The level of respect is not shown which will please God. We are satisfying ourselves and have our eye on that more than we consider Him. The real problem is that we are telling God what we want to do and not seeking the holiness He demands. But, that’s for another article another day.
Our society is degenerating at a dangerous rate. That is evident in the fact that we have to have the military involved in order to make our streets in the larger cities safe to walk on. What has happened to common decency and respect for life? The most basic instincts which would be controlled if God was in the life, are coming to the forefront and it is because we have not been thankful to God and have even eliminated Him from our societal life as much as we can and don’t want to be constrained by Him or His laws.
God brings order. He brings peace, happiness, safety and prosperity for His people when He is honored and followed. We will never find it in any other direction. We need to realize this truth and turn ourselves back to the Only One who can solve our problems. He is the one we should be remembering on Thanksgiving. He is the one that was being thanked for his love and provisions when the first Thanksgiving was held. It lasted three days and even the Indians saw the value of it. Today, it is a seasonal holiday for family and fun. Getting the family together for a few days without work and having a good time with people we have not seen in a while. But, the original reason for our Thanksgiving was to thank God. The Pilgrims realized they could not survive without Him and they wanted to express their thanks. President Lincoln in 1863 declared the day a holiday at which time we were to thank God for maintaining the unity of our nation. He realized that without God’s blessing, the nation could not survive. That is still true today. Without God’s blessings and intervention we cannot survive and we need to be reminded of that.
In the Bible, when God was going to bring judgment upon His People because they forgot Him and because the rebelled against Him, He used their enemies as His instrument of judgment. He turned them over to their enemies and let them exact judgment on the Jewish nation. When they saw the error of their ways and returned to Him in repentance, He would lift the judgment and bring them out from under the judgment of their enemies. Then He would, in His Grace and love, cause them to prosper again. That approach that He used is still available to Him and I can see where it is happening to our nation even today.
Satan has raised up a whole generation or two in which we are amazed to find people who actually hate America and want to destroy our way of life. We have people in our Congress and Senate who should not be there because they actually would like to destroy who we are and they are gaining power. God will get our attention sooner or later but, if we would turn back to Him and actually and genuinely be grateful and thankful and obedient to Him, He would preserve us and bless us more than we could ever imagine.
I could elucidate more but suffice it to say that Thanksgiving is more than being happy for what have, it is an emotion that should be ours every day as we remember that all that we have or are is to be found in one place. It all comes from God and our difficulties of today are a result of the fact that we have forgotten Him. We have ceased to see Him as our only hope. We have become unthankful. So, as we look back on our day of celebration, Thanksgiving Day, my prayer is that we will make it an every-day reality to thank God and not just once a year on the fourth Thursday of November.
The Rev. William F. Harrell is a retired Southern Baptist pastor who served at Abilene Baptist Church. He is a faith columnist for the Augusta Press.
