THURSDAY November 23, 2017
Thanksgiving
…giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Ephesians 5:20
Today is Thanksgiving, a time when families gather together to eat, fellowship and thank God for His faithfulness, blessings and provisions. Christians should always give thanks to God for all things, in the good times, and even in the bad (Job 1:21). We should especially thank Him for our salvation: In Him [Christ]we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
When the Pilgrims left England in 1620, in search of a new land where they could freely worship God, it was not an easy journey. When they arrived, it took time to establish a village at Plymouth. During the first winter, only half of the Mayflower’s passengers and crew survived.
However, in God’s providence, an Indian named Squanto from the Pawtuxet tribe came to meet them. Years earlier, he had been kidnapped by an English Captain and sold into slavery. Squanto had returned to his land, and because he had learned English, he was able to communicate with the Pilgrims. He showed them how to plant corn, extract sap from maple trees, and catch fish in the rivers.
The Pilgrims had their first Thanksgiving feast in November 1621. Governor William Bradford invited Native Americans, including Chief Massasoit from the Wampanoag tribe. It was not until 1863, during the Civil War, that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving:
…I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
What will you thank God for this Thanksgiving?
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
~Psalm 100:4~
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