We are two weeks from Thanksgiving. I went to Costco this week, there were stacks of pumpkin pies, bags of rolls and piles upon piles of hams and turkeys. There’s a feeling of festivity and excitement. Families and friends are making plans, the airports will be full and the holiday season is fully underway. First-world celebrations.
I’m certainly not trying to throw a wet blanket on the holiday. This is an amazing time to spend with family and friends. It’s an important time to slow down, to enjoy each other and to remember how incredible blessed we really are.
As Christians can prepare for Thanksgiving in many ways, including:
- Practicing gratitude: We can write down things we are thankful for each day. This can be in a journal or notepad, thrown in a jar or a bowl. One of my friends helps to prepare her family by asking her children to write down one thing they are thankful for each day during the month of November. She hangs them on a Thanksgiving Tree. At the end of the month, they pull the strips of paper back down and spend some time rejoicing in the ways the Lord has worked in their family.
- Volunteering: Christians can volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter to share Christ’s compassion with those in need.
- Donating: Christians can donate items they no longer need to charity. Winter jackets and socks are a necessity this time of year.
- Reflection: Christians can take time to reflect on what they are thankful for.
- Reading the Bible: Christians can read the Bible, including passages like Ephesians 5:4 and Colossians 3:15-17.
- Praying: Christians can pray and worship together.
- Forgiving: Christians can work to forgive others and let go of any unresolved anger or bitterness. This is a great time to be reminded of the Jewish tradition where a person must get right with man before going before God. The idea is that a person’s relationship with God is a reflection of their relationship with others.
When I pray, I generally close with “in your name we pray” or “in Jesus’ name we pray.” The other day, I heard some close with, “With joy, we pray, Amen.” Wow, I loved this.
Scripture calls us to be a rejoicing people. Paul tells the Ephesians, “Let there be thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4) and exhorts the Colossians, “And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:15-17).
Before the hustle and bustle of travel, cooking, and time with family what are ways we can set our hearts, minds, and souls towards rejoicing?
Create Opportunities for Rejoicing
The mature Christian offers not just polite thanks but heartfelt thanks that spring from a far deeper source than his own pleasure. Thanksgiving is a spiritual exercise, necessary to the building of a healthy soul. It takes us out of the stuffiness of ourselves into the fresh breeze and sunlight of the will of God. The simple act of thanking Him is for most of us an abrupt change of activity, a break from work and worry, a move toward re-creation.
Whatever method we employ, it takes discipline and effort to create space in our schedules for actively giving thanks to God.
Sing Songs for Rejoicing
Paul directed the Colossians to sing psalms and hymns with thanksgiving. For some the best way to experience joy and thanksgiving is to sing, while for others it is just listening to Worship music. Two songs that are great for this season are: My Heart is Full of Thankfulness by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Psalm 34 (Taste and See) by Shane and Shane. Putting truth to music awakens the soul, allowing us to delight as we offer up thanksgiving to God.
Let the Word Guide Your Rejoicing
Another way we cultivate thanksgiving is to expand our understanding of the biblical reasons we have to rejoice. We are called to “rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances”(1 Thess. 5:16-17), but the Bible also directs us to specific reasons for rejoicing. We give thanks for God’s character, His gracious salvation, His people, the ways He works to bless us, and even in the sufferings we endure.
A Few Verses for Thanksgiving
God’s Character – What truths about God cause your heart to rejoice?
1 Chronicles 29:10-13 – Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
2 Chronicles 5:12-13 – It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,”
Psalm 18:1-3 – I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
1Chronicles 16:23-34
Sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
and he is to be held in awe above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.
Ascribe to the LORD, O clans of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth;
yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,
and let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!”
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
God’s Blessings and Works – What ways has God worked in your life?
Deut. 26:11 – And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.
1 Chron. 16:8-10 – Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him; sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
Exodus 15:1-2 – Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,
“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
The LORD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Ephesians 1:3-10 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
1 Thess. 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
In the season ahead, we need to remember to give thanks is an action and rejoice is a verb and these are not mere pulsing emotions. While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving. May we be a people who prepare a different kind of feast this November: Thanksgiving every day for everything.
For God and you,
Deb Bostwick
Single’s Blogger