Daily Devotional For Thursday, November 28, 2024

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I know we have been making our way through the most famous and best sermon ever – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. I have decided that since today is Thanksgiving, that a devotional more on this topic is more appropriate as we all celebrate today. This holiday goes all the way back to 1621, when the Plymouth colonists from England, known as Pilgrims, and the Native American Wampanoag people shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

And for the next two centuries this holiday was celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln declared it an official national holiday for Thanksgiving to be celebrated every November. If you remember your American history classes, the Pilgrims first arrived in Plymouth in 1620, but they did not bring enough food. Half of the colony died during the winter from 1620 to 1621, as it was too late in the year to plant crops. In the spring of 1621, the colonists were taught how to grow corn and vegetables by the local Wampanoag Indians. The colonists also learned how to plant corn, cranberries, and squash, along with hunting and fishing. 

In 1789, President Washington issued a declaration that there be a day of Thanksgiving. But it would take the American Civil War to nationalize this as an official state holiday. The nation was divided and ripping itself apart due to the Civil War. A lady by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a magazine called Godey’s Lady Book, campaigned to make this an official holiday.

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated every year on the last Thursday of every November. And ever since, every American President has officially issued a proclamation reaffirming that the fourth Thursday in November be a national day of Thanksgiving called Thanksgiving Day. In 1942, Roosevelt issued a proclamation designating the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. 

Why has turkey become the official meat for Thanksgiving? Several reasons:

1. During the colonial years, wild turkeys were plentiful and everywhere in New England. It is estimated there were as many as 10 million wild turkeys living in New England when the Pilgrims and colonists arrived. 
2. One turkey alone can feed an entire family. 
3. Sarah Josepha Hale promoted the turkey as the centerpiece for every Thanksgiving meal because it was so big. 
4. When the Pilgrims joined the Wampanoag people to share in that autumn harvest feast, for meat, the Wampanoag brought deer, and the Pilgrims provided wild fowl – turkey, geese and ducks.

The Bible is full of many verses about God’s people being thankful regardless of our circumstances. Here are a few to consider today:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always; (17) pray without ceasing; (18) in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (NASB).
• 1 Chronicles 16:34, “O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting” (NASB).
• Psalm 136:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting” (NASB).
• Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NASB).
• Psalm 95:1-5, O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. (2)  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. (3) For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods, (4) In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. (5) The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land’ (NASB).
• Psalm 107:1-3, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. (2) Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary (3) And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south” (NASB).

These are just a few of the many Bible verses that remind us to always give thanks. We live in the most blessed nation and yet most of us are whiners, complainers, and grumblers. If you did not know, you would think we were living in some 3rd world country in the slums. Failure to thank God regardless of our situation is a sin and it implies we think God owes us and we are His master. God owes us nothing but we owe Him everything. What was originally a national day to give thanks, has now turned into a day to watch football games, eat until you can’t get off of the couch and plan to go “Black Friday” shopping after Midnight for the Christmas season. 

The devil loves to distract us from giving thanks. He says, “Let’s commercialize it. Let’s capitalize on it. Let’s make it about the food and not the Foodgiver – the Lord” and we just go along with it. Oh, please do not misunderstand me. Yes, someone will say grace over the Thanksgiving meal, but for most, it is a step in formality just to get to the food. But what if we made it different this year?

Before we look at some questions to consider, let me share this story with you from pastor and author Chuck Swindoll:

“A close friend of Chuck Swindoll had an acquaintance in Texas who is a young attorney. He is a member of a sizable law firm run by a rather traditional kind of boss who enjoys a special kind of ritual at Thanksgiving time. Every year this young attorney participates in the ritual because it means so much to his employer. On the large walnut table in the boardroom of the office suite sits a row of turkeys, one for each member in the firm. It isn’t just a matter of “if you want it, you can have it; if you don’t, you can leave it.” 

The members go through some rather involved protocol. Each attorney stands back from the table and looks at their turkey. When their turn comes, they step forward and pick up the bird, announcing how grateful they are to work for the firm and how thankful they are for the turkey this Thanksgiving. This young attorney is single, lives alone, and has absolutely no use for a huge turkey. He has no idea how to fix it, and even if it were properly prepared he has no way to use all its meat. But because it is expected of him, he takes a turkey every year. 

One year his close friends in the law office replaced his turkey with one made of papier-mâché. They weighted it down with lead to make it feel genuine, and attached a real turkey neck and tail to make it look just like a real turkey. But it was a bogus bird through and through. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, everyone gathered in the boardroom. When it came his turn, this young man stepped up, picked up the large bird, and announced his gratitude for the job and for the turkey. Later that afternoon, he got on the bus to go home. With the big turkey on his lap, he wondered what in the world he would do with it. 

A little further down the bus line, a rather run-down, discouraged-looking man got on. The only vacant seat on the bus was the one next to the young attorney. He sat down and they began to talk about the holiday. The lawyer learned that the stranger had spent the entire day job-hunting with no luck, that he had a large family, and that he was wondering what he would do about Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

The attorney was struck with a brilliant idea: This is my day for a good turn. I’ll give him my turkey! Then he had a second thought. “This man is not a freeloader. He’s no bum. It would probably injure his pride for me to give it to him. I’ll sell it to him.” He asked the man, “How much money do you have?” “Oh, a couple of dollars and a few cents,” the man answered. The attorney said, “I would like to sell you this turkey.” And he placed it on the man’s lap. “Sold!” The stranger handed over the two dollars and whatever coins he had. He was moved to tears, thrilled to death that his family would have a turkey for Thanksgiving. He got off the bus and waved good-bye to the attorney. 

The man said to the young attorney, “God bless you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’ll never forget you.” Can you imagine this man going home, announcing as he got inside the front door, “Kids, you’ll never believe what a nice man I met today! Come here, look what I have.” Then he’d lay the thing down, I’m sure, on the kitchen table and begin to unwrap the brown paper, only to find this fake glob of paper and lead weights, with only a real neck and real tail. What the man probably said, Simon and Schuster couldn’t even print. 

The next Monday, the attorney went to work. His friends were dying to know about the turkey. You cannot imagine their chagrin when they heard the story of what happened. After hearing what happened, all those attorneys got on the bus every day that week, looking in vain for a man who, as far as I know, to this day still entertains a misunderstanding about a guy who innocently sold him a fake turkey for a couple of bucks and a few cents” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, pp. 25-27).

I close with this letter from Willam Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony 1623:

TO ALL YE PILGRIMS

“Inasmuch as the great Father as given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third years since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”

William Bradford

Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1623

Questions To Consider

1. Are you a whiner, complainer, and grumbler? Why?
2. This Thanksgiving, what are you truly thankful to God for in your life? Get more specific than saying “ health, my job etc.” God personalizes His blessings to you, so personalize your thanksgiving back to Him.
3. If it had not been for the Wampanoag people tribe, those Pilgrims would have died that winter. Each side took a risk to come together and each side contributed to the table or feast. What will you contribute this Thanksgiving in the lives of others to bless them?
4. Who are you thankful for in your life? Take time to tell them. If you could say anything to William Bradford, what would it be and why?
5. The story by Chuck Swindoll is sad but true. What was to be an innocent prank by some fellow attorneys became a lie, a deception and a hurtful misunderstanding for many involved. What is the lesson for you personally from this story in terms of being thankful?

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 118:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting” (NASB0.

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know I whine and complain way too much. Please forgive me and create in me a thankful heart. Help me to make this day about You, not me. Lord, I am thankful for so many things. Here are a few (list them off in prayer to the Lord). I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly