History.com has this to say about Thanksgiving Day: “Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States, and Thanksgiving 2019 occurs on Thursday, November 28. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, amidst the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.”
We also know that those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving were especially thankful because they had survived a brutal winter. I read this week that the 53 pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving were the only colonists to survive the long journey on the Mayflower and the first winter in the New World. Disease and starvation struck down half of the original 102 colonists.
I thought about this and asked myself, “as a follower of Jesus Christ, am I consciously and continually thankful that Jesus rescued me from the penalty of sin by the cross?” In Philippians 4:4-7 Paul writes:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Paul understood that we do not regularly rejoice, so he repeats the requirement to rejoice. The command to rejoice is in the present tense (continuous action) and the active voice (subject produces the action). We could translate it this way: “Go on being glad in the Lord.” Joy is stated or implied over a dozen times in this short book, so it is the obvious theme of Philippians. Also, we must remember that joy is centered in the Lord, not in circumstances. People change, situations change, bad news comes, but the Lord remains the same. You can’t always change your circumstances, but you can be confident that beneath everything lie the everlasting arms of God. God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go through it.
Paul goes on to instruct his readers (and us today) not to succumb to anxiety but to pray about everything. Prayerfulness is God’s antidote for anxiety. Our lives should be saturated with prayer. And how are we to pray? We are to enter His presence with thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4) and express an attitude of gratitude. Genuine thankfulness comes from a heart whose affections have first been stirred by gratitude. It is not simply a verbal assent. It is not only a decision. Thankfulness is a spring that flows from a heart that is full of gratefulness. As we continuously revisit the gospel, we become aware of God’s goodwill toward us, and we either respond with gratitude or ungratefulness.
Psalm 50:23 reminds us that, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me!” Similarly, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:15, “As grace extends to more and more people it increases thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” John Piper put it this way: “The sequence goes like this: God’s grace is experienced as wonderful and undeserved; heartfelt thanksfeeling rises in the heart; this true thanksfeeling overflows with thanksgiving; thus God is shown to be glorious he is glorified”.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let’s return to the gospel. His name is Jesus. Jesus was fully aware of what he was sent to do. He knew the high price he must pay to take away the sins of the world. He knew the nature, scope, and weight of his Father’s righteous wrath. And he endured the judgement we deserved in our place.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).
The Son of Man, the Son of God, the Word made flesh, the Great I Am who came into the world for this very task would plead in bloody terror for the Father’s deliverance. Yet for the joy that was set before, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). When we see with spiritual eyes all that Christ has done for us, we will truly “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
So, how can you give thanks in all circumstances? There’s only one way. Allow all your rejoicing to be done in the gospel. Never lose sight of the wonder of the gospel. Never grow cold of the awe of the gospel. Never get tired of hearing the truth of the gospel. And never allow the circumstances we face on this side of heaven to steal your thanksgiving. The Lord himself will keep all the promises he made in the gospel, and that is something that will keep our hearts forever thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving!