Is this what Thanksgiving is about?

Today is Thanksgiving. Every year when thanksgiving comes around, I do a few things pretty consistently. I give an extra amount of prayer time to thanking God for the things he has done in my life, I spend time with family and friends, I eat a lot of food, and then I just move on to the next day without really thinking about what Thanksgiving is. Sure, I thank God for all the stuff he has given me, how he has blessed me, what he has done for me, etc. But today I felt called to really delve into the meaning of the action, giving thanks.

Before I go to the Bible, I just wanted to take a look at what the dictionary has to say about the word “thanks.”

It is described as “an expression of gratitude” or a “feeling of gratitude”. The thesaurus gives synonyms for thanks as ”gratitude, appreciation; acknowledgment, recognition, credit.”

Obviously, giving thanks is about making known to someone else that you are grateful for what they have done. But a few of the synonyms especially peaked my interest –  recognition and credit. It is one thing to be thankful for something someone has done, or to appreciate it, or even acknowledge it. But giving that person the recognition, or credit is different. See, the first few things are actions performed towards the doer of the action. When my dad taught me how to ride my bike, I thanked him, I showed him gratitude. I’m sure this brought joy to my father. In contrast, however, recognition and credit are things you give someone, while talking to someone else. If I were to be raving about how my Dad is super awesome and taught me how to ride my bike to a friend of mine, and my Dad saw it from afar, I’m sure he would be filled with even more joy than if I had just told him about how thankful I was. It is one thing to to express gratitude to someone who does something for you, but it is so much greater when you are so grateful that you are eager to tell OTHERS about how grateful you are.

In case you aren’t following where I’m going with this, this situation with my dad is just a metaphor for what thanksgiving is really about. And for Christians, that’s expressing an unending gratitude for what Jesus Christ did for us. Now, what I’ve realized is, when Thanksgiving comes around, I’m all for thanking God for what he did, and continues to do for me. But expressing to others the incredulity of what God has done and giving him the credit and recognition? Not so much.

One thing that the Bible could not be more clear about is God’s command for Christians to evangelize. For example, Jesus commands his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations just before he is about to leave them.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)

Again, in Acts 1:8, Jesus calls for his followers to be witnesses for him, using the Holy Spirit that is in them.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)

Jesus commands us to evangelize about his truth! That is a sign of true gratitude. That is giving God the credit, the recognition that he deserves. It is important to note that there is nothing we can do to prove ourselves worthy to God, but when we are saved, we can demonstrate to him our appreciation and gratitude not only through prayer, but also through our actions, most notably telling others about how incredible he is and about his power to save. Like the analogy with my dad teaching me to bike, I’m sure that God appreciates it when we thank him for what he’s done for us, but the Bible is clear that God is filled with joy when we obey his commands (Jn. 14:15) -one of which is evangelizing to others about Him!

I believe that the Bible is clear that true thanksgiving is demonstrating, DOING, things for the One we love. Not just hearing or saying, but doing. Check out James 1:22 -

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (ESV)

Though good works do not save us, they definitely are proof of our salvation! We can not prove ourselves worthy of our God, but we can attempt to show him our gratitude for all he has done for us in the way we live! That is what Thanksgiving is all about.

On one last note, our thanksgiving to God shouldn’t just be a one day thing. Not even a weekly thing. Or daily. It should be a lifestyle. It should define the life of a Christian! I can’t go through the day checking spiritual “good work” boxes. I am absolutely guilty of the, “Read my bible, check. Prayed, check. Talked to someone about Jesus, check. Posted a blog about discerning the Biblical truth about what thanksgiving is, check.(see what I did there : P)” But that’s not what God wants. He wants the heart. He wants all of us. Everything we have. Anything less, and he’d rather have nothing. Our giving thanks to God shouldn’t be a act we do. It needs to be who we are.

While writing this blog, I was on Facebook and noticed a status posted by one of my good friends, Max Hosford. I believe this status sums up this blog and how we should think about our thanksgiving to the Lord:

“Shouldn’t Thanksgiving be every day, not just the last Thursday of November?”