Tomorrow, we as Americans celebrate the holiday called Thanksgiving. This can be an important holiday for Christians, becasue we are called to be people of thanksgiving (enter His gates with thanksgiving) and we are commanded in Scripture to have thankful hearts (give thanks to the Lord for He is good). But recently, I have seen a growing trend in Christians that is very troubling when it comes to thanksgiving and having a thankful heart. Let me explain the problem first with an illustration.
Every Christmas we give gifts to each other. Maybe it is your family exchanging gifts. Maybe it is you and a friend giving gifts to each other. Just maybe if your blessed, you receive a gift from your employer. But during the Christmas season, gift exchanges are a common thing. You probably remember as a kid, that one toy or gift you wanted from your parents. Finally, on Christians Day, you opened the present and there it was, that new doll, new video game, or new Lego set. You got excited when you got what you want at Christmas. As kids the joy, excitement, and even thanksgiving of getting that one gift you have wanted for weeks. And if your like me, your parents reminded you to say, "thank you" to the person that gave you the gift you wanted. Your parents reminded you to say thanks becasue you were so consumed with the gift, the joy of the gift, the pleasure the gift will bring, and being able to now go and play with the gift. As a kid, you were truly thankful for the gift, but that was it, your thanks extended to the gift itself.
As mature adults at the holiday season, we exchange gifts, get our loved ones gifts, and open presents from those we love, but we understand it differently. Yes, we enjoy and like the gift. But as mature adults we are thankful for the person who gave us the gift. We understand the gift is just an extension of their love for us. So we open the gift, look at the giver, and declare our thanksgiving for the gift becasue truly we like the gift but are thankful for the giver of the gift.
At some point in our maturation process, we go from being thankful for the gift itself, to being thankful for the giver of the gift. As selfish, childish, immature human beings we are excited for the gift, joyful for what the gift brings us, and full of thanksgiving for the gift itself. In this state we can't look very far beyond what the gift is to us. As loving, mature adults, we get to the point where the gift is nice, but we are excited, joyful, and full of thanksgiving for the giver of the gift, understanding the gift is just a simple extension of the giver of the gift to us. As mature adults we are thankful for the giver of the gift, not the gift itself (if we have actually matured in our understanding and thinking).
Yet in Christian circles today, all we hear more than ever is people being thankful for the gift. I have recently heard so many testimonies of people being thankful. But the witness of thanksgiving from people who have been redeemed by God, is thanksgiving of the gift. I can go down the list. Christians are declaring their excited, joyful, exuberance for things like Christian music, health, family, the church, a job, their Bibles, a new vehicle, their plans going according to the way they want, and a great year of God blessing them with so much of what they wanted. This list goes on and on. Christians praise and declare their thanksgiving for the gifts. Yet they never once declare their thanksgiving for who God is and the giver of the gifts. God is gracious. God is holy. God is sovereign. God is loving. God is faithful. God is loyal. God is full of mercy. God is the King. God is the creator. God is the all-powerful one. God is the redeemer. God is the sanctifier. God is the victorious warrior. God is all of these things and so much more, in His very nature. God is all of these things, so God extends gifts (He never has to) to His people in multiple ways daily. Yet Christians declare loudly their thanksgiving for the gifts or worse the amazing things they could do with the gift and never for what is actually behind the gift. This is the sad trend growing among the people of God. As the psalmist says, "God is better than life itself". Yet when a Christian has nothing more than life, they seem to never be thankful.
Why have Christians focused so much on the gift and not very much on the giver when they are thankful? It is becasue of what the illustration early shows. Christians who declare their thanksgiving for the gift (or sadly selfishness in the way they use the gift), never mentioning or focusing on the Giver and the nature of the Giver, are immature childish Christians. A mature believer knows the gifts really do not matter in the end. The gifts are nice. But the declared witness of thanksgiving must talk about, declare the glory of, and praise the nature of the Giver alone. We as a church today must mature up. We must focus on the Giver, the Sustainer, the all sovereign Lord of all things with our thanksgiving. Yes the gifts He gives us are nice. But they are simply gifts, extensions of His great character to us. The Lord's great character is what we must be thankful for. The Lord's great attributes is what God's people must witness about. The Lord's awesome, magnificent being, is what Christians must raise their voices in thanksgiving to. So let us mature as God's people today to be thankful for and declare to others this thanksgiving, not for the gifts, but for the Giver of the gift, the Lord God All-Mighty.
Here is a Psalm I have been reading a lot lately as I think about true worshipful thanksgiving to God.
Psalms 104...
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2 covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
4 he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
5 He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11 they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15 and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
16 The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19 He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.
24 O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
27 These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
Praise the LORD!
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