What is Thanksgiving?

Every year, on the 4^th Thursday of November, Thanksgiving is celebrated all over America.  For most, planning begins weeks before the day arrives.  Where are we gathering this year?  What dish are you bringing?  Does anyone have Grandma’s sweet potato casserole recipe?  Some families go all out – special china, fine linens, and decorations are brought out.  Many families prefer to keep it simple and use convenient, disposable plates, cups, and napkins.  Everyone has a family tradition.  Some families will be served by volunteers at a church, YMCA, or Salvation Army facility.  Regardless of our circumstances or traditions, the Thanksgiving meal is a favorite of everyone. 

I’ve been excited about celebrating Thanksgiving this year.  Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, hot rolls, green bean casserole-mmm.  I can just taste it all now. 

What is Thanksgiving?  This weekend I began reading my November issue of BVOV(Believers Voice of Victory 2005) that I receive from Kenneth Copeland Ministries.  The first article was very good – entitled “The Power of a Grateful Heart”.  The second was an article about Thanksgiving and God.  After reading this article I began to realize how this day has become less and less about taking time to focus on God and how He has blessed us and how we should return those blessings to Him with thanksgiving and praise.  It seems it has become more about food, family traditions, and football games. 

History records the original intent of this holiday was to be a time to focus on God.  Although Thanskgiving celebrations occurred as early as the 1600’s, it was Abraham Lincoln, who in 1863, gave an invitation to all citizens in the United States to observe the last Thursday of November as a day for giving thanks to God.  He stated:

“We often forget the Source from which the blessings of

Fruitful years and healthful skies come…No human wisdom

Hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great

Things.  They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God…I

Therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the U.S. to

Observe the last Thursday of November as a day of

Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father who

Dwelleth in the heavens.”

For the next 75 years, presidents followed Lincoln’s precedent and in 1941 Congress permanently established this holiday.

After reading this article I began to reflect on some of our past family celebrations.  I don’t recall the focus being all about God – it seemed to be all about food and family.  Not to say He didn’t cross our minds.  A prayer of blessing over the food might have been offered.  We may have mentioned some of the things for which we were thankful. 

What is Thanksgiving?  I decided to see what the definition of thanksgiving is.  The dictionary defines thanksgiving as a prayer that offers thanks to God, an expression or an act of giving thanks, and a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness.  The words for thanksgiving in Hebrew are towdah, yadah, and huyedaw(hoo-yed-aw) or heydah.  These words mean to offer thanks, adoration, confession, a sacrifice of praise; to revere or worship with extended hands; to make acclamation as in shouting; a choir of worshippers or singers.   The Greek word for thanksgiving is eucharistia – it means gratitude; grateful language to God as an act of worship; thankfulness; giving of thanks.  Can you imagine the blessings our Father in Heaven would receive if we all spent this day, a day man set aside to offer thanks to the Lord, with our hands extended in towdah or yadah shouting in a grateful language acclamations of praise, offering thanks and blessing His name?  Praising and worshipping Him first and then sitting down to our meal in celebration to receive the sustenance to renew our physical strength after He renewed our spiritual strength through our joyful offering of praise. 

I began searching for scripture about offering thanksgiving.  Psalm 100 is a psalm of thanksgiving.  

Psalm 100

 Shout with joy to the LORD, O earth!  Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.  Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.  For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation

 There are many scriptures that tell us how and why to give thanks to the Lord.  Actually, it should be something we do daily and not just at Thanksgiving.

 Many of you may already keep God as the focus of your Thanksgiving celebration.  As you celebrate this year take notice of these things:   How much of your time is devoted to praising the Lord, offering thanks to Him, and blessing Him?  

May the Lord bless you abundantly as you worship Him with all your heart this Thanskgiving!