Thinking about our Attitude On Thanksgiving.
Psalms 100:1-5.
The first North American Thanksgiving is traced back to 1578 when the English navigator Martin Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what is now called Newfoundland. We don’t believe this is when the kissing-of-the-cod tradition began, but there was indeed a great party to give thanks for surviving the long journey across the Atlantic. Forty years later, and also after crossing the ocean, French settlers led by Samuel de Champlain in Nova Scotia would hold huge feasts of thanks. They got a little more organized and formed "The Order of Good Cheer" where they shared their food with Indian neighbours. This would be around the same time as the American pilgrims gave thanks in 1621 for the bounty that ended a year of hardships and death. Of significance, it was at this time when the main course the turkey made its first appearance at the feast. For the next two centuries, people on both sides of the border would informally set aside a day in November to lift a glass and give cheers to the harvest. But the Americans beat us to the punch, so to speak, when in 1863 Abe Lincoln’s government officially declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. It’s been celebrated on that day ever since. We couldn’t make up minds that easily, it seems. Our Canadian Thanksgiving bounced around the calendar quite a bit. It was first celebrated as a national holiday on November 6, 1879. Many different dates were used after that, the most popular being the 3rd Monday in October. The thinking was that this simply made sense because of our shorter growing season. After World War I it was moved back to the second week of November to coincide with Armistice Day. But finally, in 1957, Parliament said enough’s enough and formally proclaimed the 2nd Monday of October as "a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canadian has been blessed. I don’t know if it matters or not, but Canadians chose their date for Thanksgiving based on seasonal convenience, and Americans chose their date to ensure that there would be 4 full weeks of Christmas shopping.
This is the day where we set aside time in our busy schedules to give thanks to God. Now, there is nothing wrong with that but the word of God tells us that this should be our attitude daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.
Eph. 5:19, 20. "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." I Thess. 5:16-18. "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. The way Paul’s is talking one would think that he is preaching in church because of his main subject which is PRAISE, THANKSGIVING. Paul is talking about what Christian’s attitudes are to be towards God and to each other.
One young lady wrote home from college, "Dear Mom: Sorry I haven’t written sooner. My arm really has been broken. I broke it, and my left leg, when I jumped from he second floor of my dormitory...when we had the fire. We were lucky. A young service station attendant saw the blaze and called the Fire Department. They were there in minutes. I was in the hospital for a few days. Paul, the service station attendant, came to see me every day. And because it was taking so long to get our dormitory liveable again, I moved in with him. He has been so nice. I must admit that I am pregnant. Paul and I plan to get married just as soon as he can get a divorce. I hope things are fine at home. I’m doing fine, and will write more when I get the chance. Love,
Your daughter, Susie.
P.S. None of the above is true. But I did get a "C" in Sociology and flunked Chemistry. I just wanted you to be in the right attitude when you read this. To be thankful in all circumstances to have a right attitude. Only then we will be able to give thanks to the Lord always. Now, I believe there are at least three attitudes that steal away our gratitude and keep us from being thankful.
1) One is our pride. This is the attitude that says, "Nobody ever gave me anything, I worked hard for everything I have." For years you studied hard and now it is finally paying off. With this kind of attitude, we feel that we have no one to thank but ourselves.
2) A critical spirit or constant complaining. Instead of being grateful, this person will always find something to complain about. "A lady known as an incurable grumbler constantly complained about everything. At last her preacher thought he had found something about which she would be happy, for her farm crop was the finest for miles around. When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, `You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.’ `True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs.
3) An attitude of carelessness. Number tow and number three actually go together. Someone once said that if the stars only came out once a year, we would stay out all night to watch them. But they are there every night and we are so use to them being there that we very seldom go out side to look at them. The Israelites grumbled because they had no food so God miraculously sent manna each day except the Sabbath day. Then they started to grumble because it was the same thing every day. Here is a group of people who could get up in the morning and look out their tent and see the presence of the Lord. Here were people who had a miracle straight from God every day but they were no longer satisfied. Because of pride, carelessness or a critical spirit we will never be truly thankful for all that God has given us. Rudyard Kipling was a great writer and poet. Unlike many writers, Kipling was one of the few who had opportunity to enjoy his success while he lived. He also made a great deal of money at his trade. One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word; Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that." The reporter cynically reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, "Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words." Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks." He’s right! This is one word that is too seldom heard and too rarely spoken and too often forgotten. If we would all adopt an attitude of thanksgiving into our lives our lives would be changed. We would savour each day.
David says in Ps. 107 "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good." We should express our thanks to God and others. In Luke 17 Jesus healed ten men of their leprosy. Jesus tells us the out of those ten only one came back to give thanks. Psychologists today tell us that sincere gratitude, thanksgiving, is the healthiest of all human emotions. Hans Selye, who is considered the father of stress studies, has said that gratitude produces more positive emotional energy than any other attitude in life. A thankful heart will endear others to us and us to others because a spirit of thanksgiving is not only good for the giver but also good for the receiver. God appreciates our thanksgiving. It lifts Him up and it glorifies Him. If we are not grateful, if we do not express our thanksgiving, then it can have the opposite affect.
Rom. 1:21 Paul says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Paul is saying that people who are ungrateful to God will/can soon fall away and that their hearts will become hardened. One of the greatest hindrance to our truly worshipping Jesus as I said before is pride. As people who have become Children of the Living God through Jesus Christ, we have so much for which to celebrate on Thanksgiving! As Canadians I feel that we are more
Underprivileged today than the people who first settled this great land were centuries ago and who got together to celebrate what the Lord had given them. Think about what we have today and what they had and one will find quite a difference. They had no homes & no help to build their homes. They got around by walking or maybe riding a horse if they had one. The only food on their table was either grown by them or they went into the forest and hunted for it. They had no money, no amusements except what they made for themselves, no means of communication with their relatives across the Atlantic. It is very likely that also had no doctors at all. They did have some of the greatest human assets that I believe are still seem in people today like initiative, courage and a willingness to work. There is one asset that they had back them that I believe is totally absent in our society today & and that is a boundless faith in God. Our forefathers had "a boundless faith in God." That almost sounds strange today. We live in a time when powerful forces are at work trying to strip us of every reminder that our very foundation was built upon the conviction that we serve a mighty God. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day one would assume that because of the example of our forefathers, & because today we have so much, that we would be an extremely thankful people. But it is often just the opposite, isn’t it? The more we get, the less thankful we become, the less mindful of God we are, & the more we want. I think also that there is a real danger in determining our thanksgiving on the basis of how much we have. We allow our position, our wealth and our health to determine whether we are or aren’t thankful. As far as I know we are the only country in the world, except for the U.S. & the Philippines, that has a Thanksgiving Day? I think there is something about giving thanks together to God that breaks down barriers between people & brings about a unity, much like that which occurred as the Berlin wall began to crumble. Lord. Alex Haley, the author of "Roots," had an unusual picture hanging on his office wall. It was a picture of a turtle on top of a fence post. When asked, "Why is that there?" Alex Haley answered, "Every time I write something significant, every time I read my words & think that they are wonderful, & begin to feel proud of myself, I look at the turtle on top of the fence post & remember that he didn’t get there on his own. He had help." That is the basis of thankfulness to remember that we got here with the help of God, & that He is the provider of every blessing we have. As we look at this Psalm I believe the Psalmist wants the Children of the Lord to be willing to express how they feel towards the Lord to the world.
1. "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth." It means to "shout with the force of a trumpet blast," a shout of joy to the Lord that comes from the very depths of your being. Maybe Jesus has solved your problem. Maybe He has given you the direction to go. Maybe He has provided a blessing, & you realize that it has come from God. So from the depths of your being you proclaim your praise. Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself & said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they grew older." But this missionary had developed a treatment which would stop progressive blindness. So people came to him & he performed his treatment, & they would leave realizing that they would have become completely blind, but because of him their sight had been saved. He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it. And that is what the Psalmist is saying. "Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside any more, do we tell the name of the Lord to our friend what Jesus has done for us. I think we more that anyone else should be able to shout a little bit.
2. "Serve the Lord with gladness." Did you know that your coming to Church is serving the Lord. Hebrew tells us that we are to enter into worship.
The Bible teaches that if we witness on behalf of the Lord, if we feed the hungry, if we clothe the naked, if we do the work of the Lord, whatever it might be, we are serving the Lord.
Matthew 25:40 Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." I’m not sure that we grasp that. Maybe we serve at times out of a feeling of obligation or a fear of guilt if we don’t serve, or maybe even because we want to draw attention to ourselves. It’s natural for us to desire appreciation when we do something that is worthwhile. But the Psalmist says, "In whatever you do, serve the Lord with gladness." 3. "Come before Him with joyful songs."
Psalm 98:4 says, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord."
Have you noticed? In these first 3 commands, God has said, "I want you to be happy. Shout with joy, serve with gladness, & come with joyful songs." Now just take a moment & think about some Christians who you know. When you first see them how do they look? Do they look happy or are they just sitting there with an up side down smile on their faces? The Psalmist says, "Come before Him & serve Him & sing His praise with joy in your heart. 4. "Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, & we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. When the Israelites focused on what they didn’t have, they failed to see ALL that they DID have. I have noticed that our prayers are always about what we want and usually the list is quite long. I have also noticed that our thanks list is usually never as long. I wonder what would happen if we made our wants list short and our thanks list long. Geoff Moore sings a song in which, at the beginning of a new day, he says, "Well, I wonder what today will see. Will I find my dreams OR stare in the face of tragedy? Whatever may come, whatever may be, of this I am SURE, I’m forgiven and free and I will live like I believe? It’s good to be alive, to feel the wind in my face, and see the blue in the sky. Its days like this that I realize what God has really given to me as a gift. We have all had some difficult times but, if we really look at all the benefits of life, I think we will find that God had really been good to us. Have you though about how good it is to feel the wind in your face, to see the sunrise, to love those we care about, to feel the hugs from a child or parent or a friend and hear them tell us we are special. I think Snoopy get the right attitude after he think for a mimute.
It’s Thanksgiving Day & the aroma of roast turkey fills Charlie Brown’s house. Snoopy was outside lying on top of his doghouse and as he smells the aroma he is thinking, “It’s Thanksgiving Day. Everybody eats turkey on Thanksgiving Day.” So he lies there, watching the back door, eagerly awaiting his Thanksgiving dinner. Finally, the door opens & here comes Charlie Brown with a bowl of dog food, which he puts on the ground. Snoopy gets off his house & stares at the dog food with a forlorn look on his face. He thinks, “Just because I’m a dog, I have to eat dog food on Thanksgiving Day.” Then the next square shows him looking at the dog food more intently, & he is thinking, “It could be worse. I could be the turkey.”
5. "Enter His Church with thanksgiving, & His Sanctuary with praise; give thanks to Him & praise His name. For the Lord is good & His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Now I know the Scripture doesn’t actually use those words but when you came into church today what was your attitude? When you entered into the Sanctuary what was your attitude? In Biblical times and even today the church building symbolized the presence of God in the community. So whenever the people came to the church they knew that they had come into the presence of God. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savoir then the presence of the Holy Spirit lives within us. Jesus is here today in the presence of the Holy Spirit because you the Children of the Living God have brought the Jesus with you. Jesus is with you every moment of your life. That is the source of our thanksgiving, isn’t it? What if God began to treat us like we so often treat Him? What if God met our needs to the same extent that we give Him our lives?
A large family sat around the breakfast table one morning. As the custom, the father gave the blessing for the food. Immediately after, however, he began to grumble about hard times, the poor quality of the food he was forced to eat, the way it was cooked, and much more. His little daughter interrupted him, “Dad, do you suppose God heard what you said a little while ago when you were giving thanks?” “Certainly,” the father replied. “And did Jesus hear what you when you were complaining about the food and the coffee?” “Of course,” replied the father with a note of caution in his voice.” Then his daughter asked, “Dad, do you think God would believe that you were actually thankful for the food or would God believe what you were complaining about. Which would God believe?” What if Everytime it rained and we complained that all the flowers and the grass died. What if God stopped loving & caring for us because we failed to love & care for each others? What if God took away His message because we wouldn’t listen to His messenger? What if Jesus wouldn’t bless us today because we didn’t thank Him yesterday? What if God answered our prayers the way we are obedient to Him. What if God decided to stop offering guidance because we didn’t feel that what the Lord wanted for our lives was what we wanted? May what the Psalmist wrote be our prayer today and forever.
Psalm 103:10. O Lord, help us to be thankful that you do "not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
