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This is what I'm thankful for |
| Written by Craig Wilson |
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Thanksgiving day was originally a day set aside by the pilgrims to thank God specifically for the blessings that He had given to them. In other words Thanksgiving has at it's root a spiritual perspective. The Pilgrims left their home in order to find a place where they could worship the Lord according to the Scriptures and not according to any other governing body. They were thankful to God for what He had done in their lives.
Like many traditions Thanksgiving has virtually lost it's original significance. Ask the average person today what they are thankful for and what will you hear? You will probably here quite a list of things that they are thankful for but there will probably not be too many who make any reference to God, of if they do they will make a passing reference to God, kind of a generic reference. But there really won't be any mention of any kind of spiritual thankfulness. Unfortunately I'm afraid the same truth many times applies the believers. When asked what they are thankful for and they too will give a list of things and they will be more explicit in thanking God for His blessings but how many times will the Christian give specific thanks for what He has done for them spiritually? If we don't thank God for what He has done for us through Christ is our thanksgiving any different from the unbeliever and therefore anymore pleasing to Him? As a Christian here is what I am thankful for
Remember the old Steve Martin movie "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid"? Here is a corollary "Dead Men Don't Give Thanks". Why don't they give thanks? Because they are dead! Because they are dead they can't give thanks. But for those of us who have been brought out of death and into life, spiritual life, life in Christ we should give thanks at least because we can give thanks! Remember apart from Christ we were spiritually dead, that means that cut off from the Father, we were His enemies, we were separated from Him and headed for destruction. But as Paul says "thanks be to God" for what? For his indescribable gift - Jesus Christ through which we have life!
Sin messes up our lives! Sin corrupts my thinking so much so that I don't know how to make right decisions or make the right choices. But now that I am alive in Christ I have incredible resources to help me make the choices that are best for me, i.e. that would be God's will as revealed in the Scriptures. Each day the Lord uses the circumstances of my life to teach me a whole lot about my self and then shows me in His word whether or not my reactions were Christlike or not. But the key is I'm not left to myself to try and figure it all out. It is in the Scriptures that I'm taught how I am to relate to my God, to my wife, to my children, to my friends, to my neighbors as well as my enemies.
Without the Scriptures guidance how could we ever hope to make sense of what is going on around us? Apart from the Scriptures I would have no way to gauge the chaos that is prevalent in lives of so many. But because God has given me the Scriptures I have a standard by which I can evaluate the chaos. The benefit is that I can have stability because I understand that chaos is the effect of sin, and that God's plan and purposes are still being accomplished in spite of what we see going on around us. And I can use the Scriptures to help others understand that there is both hope and help available for all who will come to Christ.
I am so thankful that the Father is so much more faithful than I am. How many time have I failed? How many times have I sinned - and committed the same sin time after time? Yet despite all of my unfaithfulness God has remained faithful to me, and because He cannot fail he will always be faithful to me. These are just some of the things that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.  |