The Meaning of Thanksgiving

(Philippians 4:11) "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." 

In a few days we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving once again.  Sad to say, we as Americans have forgotten what the holiday and meaning of Thanksgiving is all about.  We hardly celebrate Thanksgiving today as a religious holiday.  Many public schools don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  Our society has become so secularized that we refer to the fourth Thursday in November as "Turkey Day", which is a sad indictment upon our society.  Our school systems and our government have removed the religious aspects of Thanksgiving and as a result, it's just another holiday where families gather together to eat turkey, dressing, cranberries, and sit back and watch NFL football.  Even though I don't have an issue with feasting and families enjoying themselves, we need to remember the roots of Thanksgiving.  The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 when the Wampanoag Indians and the Plymouth colonists shared a harvest feast commemorating the blessings of God on their life.  The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to survive in the New World.  When the Pilgrims came to the New World via the Mayflower Compact, they didn't come to America possessing all the luxuries that we possess today.  Some of the Pilgrims died on their journey to America.  America was a wilderness.  It took generations upon generations to build the America we know today.  They didn't come to America that had nice houses or motels or had restaurants in which they can eat.  They had to domesticate the land.  They had to learn how to build a place of shelter, grow their own crops, and hunt animals.  Many in our generation can't begin to understand the life they had to live.  It's archaic in today's standards.

Ever since the end of World War II, America has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity as never witnessed before in this nation.  As a result, we've raised generations ranging from the Baby Boomers all the way down to the youngest generation today who don't know what it means to travail and work like the World War II generation and before.  Many in the World War II generation lived in rural areas and they had to learn to work.  They didn't enjoy the luxuries like the younger generations know of today.  We've become a spoiled and unthankful generation.  We need a revival of the spirit of thanksgiving that was prevalent in generations past.  We need to recognize that all good gifts come from God.  What does Thanksgiving mean?  Thanksgiving means an act of giving thanks, an expression of gratitude, esp. to God.  The latter definition is a holiday which is set aside every fourth Thursday in November.  If you divide Thanksgiving into two words "thanks" and "giving" then you have two self-explanatory definitions.  Thanks means to express gratitutde to God for his goodness.  Giving means that as a result of being thankful, you give of yourself, your treasure, and your time, for example.  I know there are people that give that do so begrudgingly, but I'm not sure that you can be truly thankful and giving doesn't result from it.  If we recognize how good God is to us, it should motivate us to want to give and contribute.  We lack a giving spirit simply because we aren't very thankful in this society.

Philippians 2:14 says that we should do all things without murmurings and disputings.  How many people do you find in this generation that does all things without complaining?  You don't find that very often.  I believe it's because we lack a spirit of thankfulness in our lives.  What does it mean to be thankful?  Philippians 4:11 states that as the Apostle Paul noted that he's learned that whatsoever state he's in therewith to be content.  A thankful person is contented.  Thankful people aren't dissatisfied people.  They aren't seeking after bigger and better houses, cars, and riches.  They're thankful for the bounty the Lord has allowed them to have.  That doesn't mean that thankful people can't be rich nor own great possessions.  However, if those possessions own us, then that's a totally different story.  We're to be contented with what we have.  Don't confuse contentment with a Christian's spiritual walk or somebody who owns a business that would like to see it grow and progress.  It's appropriate to desire progression in whatever field you're laboring in or in a Christian's walk with the Lord.  But I'm speaking of the things we own or the situations we may find ourselves in our lives.  When we're content, we're content regardless whether times or good and bad.  It's easy to be content when times are good, but we fall short of being thankful when we're going through trials in life.  But when we realize that Jesus is all we need in life, then we can learn to be content.  It's how important God is in our lives.  If God is everything to us, then we'll be content. 

Thanksgiving is a time to set aside some time giving thanks unto the Lord for his goodness in our life.  Not only are we to be thankful for his bountiful blessings in our lives, but we're to be thankful for who God is.  We're to be thankful to God that he created us.  God created us because He wants us to commune with Him.  God is worthy to be worshipped.  God is holy.  He alone is enough of a reason why we should always have a spirit of thanksgiving in our hearts.  Then secondly, we should be thankful for God's provision in our lives.  Being unthankful for God's provision in our life is in essence saying that God's provision isn't sufficient.  The Bible speaks much about the last day generation and one of the characteristics of that generation is an ungrateful spirit and attitude.  God tells us to save ourselves from that untoward generation.  We definitely don't want to possess a spirit of unthankfulness.  We don't want to be a part of that untoward generation.  It grieves me when I think of Christians who are destitute in so many areas in a physical sense, but those same people are happy in the Lord.  They are contented with the state they're in.  They love the Lord and have joy in their hearts.  I recognize worldly possessions don't make people happy, but when I think of how blessed we are when it comes to all the things we desire in a material sense in life, it's a gross shame that we're so discontented and unthankful.  We need to have enough sense to be thankful for all the material blessings that have been bestowed upon us.  I don't want to have an ungrateful spirit when I think of how we've been blessed in a material sense in this generation.  I'm not trying to extol materialism because joy isn't found in materialism.  But I don't want to have more than what I need and possess an ungrateful spirit.  We're too blessed to be ungrateful. 

There are several things which we should give thanks for but I'm not going to take time to list those in this particular post.  I'll do so in a future post.  If you are saved and washed in the blood of the lamb, you have a lot to be thankful for.  Those that have been saved should be thankful for what Jesus did on Calvary when he paid the debt for our sins.  That's the most important thing we should give thanks for.  We should remember the sacrifice on Calvary.  One of the things I like about Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrated within a month of each other is both deal with the issue of giving thanks to God.  During Thanksgiving, we thank God for who he is, the debt that Jesus paid on Calvary, and the bountiful blessings He's bestowed upon us not only individually but as a country.  We thank God for the bountiful harvest during the year on Thanksgiving.  During Christmas we celebrate the fact that God sent his own son to this earth to be born in a manger so that one day he would take up the cross and die for the sins of mankind.  Hallelujah!  In a nutshell Thanksgiving is giving thanks to God and learning to be content with what state we're in.  Our churches need a revival of thanksgiving.  If our churches had a revival of thanksgiving, I guarantee you God would do great and mighty things in the midst of His people.  We just need to step aside and reflect upon God's goodness in our life.  It will change our life if we take it to heart.