Thanksgiving

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
Psalm 100

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and many of us will be spending the holiday with our loved ones. For some of us it will be different as we will be in unfamiliar surroundings spending the day with relatives not seen in a very long time or relatives we’ve never met before. For others there will be special people who will not be able to physically attend the festivities but are with us in spirit. Some of us will be alone on the holiday and choose to leave it that way. However we decide to spend it, one thing we should all be doing no matter where we are or who we are with, is thanking God for all of His provision and protection. Maybe it hasn’t been the best year for some of us, but the fact that we are still breathing and standing is reason enough to give thanks. Perhaps we are a bit cynical and can’t see what there is to be thankful for, well here is a list of things that we can all agree on:
We can be thankful that we can breathe – some people need help to breathe, yet we can breathe on our own.
We can be thankful that we have all our body parts – some people don’t and they work extra hard to survive while we take it for granted.
We can be thankful for the roof over heads, the food on our table, and the family we have – some people are homeless, hungry, and have no family.
Most of all we should be thankful for God’s mercy on us, after all, we could be in worse situations than we have experienced this past year, yet God has protected us, provided for us, and kept us in the stormiest moments of our lives. So maybe it hasn’t been the best year in your opinion, yet there have been miracles in between those hard times such as, a loved one getting married and finding joy in his/her new spouse, a new baby being born to a friend or relative, a prodigal son or daughter comes home, someone you love received salvation in this past year. We must be grateful for ALL that God does for us, even the seemingly insignificant things such as your car not stalling on you this morning or the traffic light that kept you 5 minutes away from being in an accident. Psalm 100 says in verses 2 and 4: “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing.” “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.” Let us remember this Thanksgiving Day to thank God for all our blessings big and small and for the trials too because they make us better people in the end. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!