Introduction
Thanksgiving traditions vary from state to state, but for the most part, people all over the USA gather with family and friends and share a huge feast on that day. Sometimes the purpose of Thanksgiving, gratitude and thankfulness for all God has done, can get lost in the preparation and celebration. In the United States of America, we celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving in November each year. The holiday is steeped with American History to include [1]:
- The very first Thanksgiving feast was in November of 1621 upon the first successful corn harvest of the Pilgrims. The feast lasted for three days, and it was celebrated with the Native American Wampanoag people. There is no real record of what foods were included in that first feast only to say that it included the fruits of labor, much fowl, and deer, as written by Edward Winslow.
- in 1789, during the American Revolution, George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the government of the United States. It was to celebrate the conclusion of the war and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Washington said there should be one or more days of thanksgiving a year.
- New York became the first state of several northern states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday in 1817. At this time the American South was not familiar with this holiday nor its traditions.
- In 1827 author Sarah Josepha Hale began her 36-year campaign to establish a national Thanksgiving holiday.
- In 1863 Abraham Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving holiday on the final Thursday in November every year. It happened every year until 1939.
- In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up one week to help out with holiday retail sales.
- Officially in 1941 President Roosevelt made the national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
Why Should We Celebrate Thanksgiving?
Getting back to the original Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims and Native American people, and as mentioned earlier, our Thanksgiving holiday should center around our thanksgiving and gratitude for all God has done for us. Our God is merciful and gracious to us, take a look at some of the things I have found for which the Bible says be thankful and grateful.
He is our Creator
Psalms 100:1-3 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
He is good and merciful
1 Chronicles 16:34 “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalms 106:1 “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalms 107:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: his mercy endureth for ever.”
Psalms 118:28-29 “Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
He helps and protects us
Psalms 28:7 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”
He gives good and perfect gifts
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
He cares for our every need
Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? “
His anger becomes comfort
Isaiah 12:1 “And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.”
His mercies never fail
Lamentations 22-23 “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
He is the rock
Psalms 95:1 “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”
It is the least we can do for all He has done for us
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
He will deliver us
Psalms 50:14-15 “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
He gives us victory
1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 2:14 “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”
He forgives, heals and redeems
Psalms 103:1-5 “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.”
Thanksgiving exercises and tells of our faith
Colossians 2:6-7 “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
Psalms 9:1 ” will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.”
Jonah 2:9 “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
1 Chronicles 16:8 “Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.”
He gave everything and we should be thankful in everything
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”
Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Colossians 4:2 “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”
Final Thoughts
So, there’s lots to meditate upon! God is so good and without Him we would have nothing. Do you love the Lord? Prove it with your thanksgiving, do what the Bible says we should do:
O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
(Psalms 107:1-3)
[1] History.com Editors. 2021. “Thanksgiving 2021.” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks. November 11, 2021. https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving.
