Thanksgiving & Praise 2020

 

Thanksgiving & Praise 2020

 

First, you may be asking yourself, what should Thanksgiving look like in the year 2020? 

Let us take a look at the year that has changed so many of our lives, and still continues to.  Since Thanksgiving Day is almost here, we need to start this week and end this week with thanksgiving for what we have gained and remember the challenges we have faced, to be able to THANK and PRAISE GOD for getting us through each hour of each day of this past year to now.  We have faced many things including loss of family members, a pandemic, loss of jobs, loss of financial security, mental health issues, strange weather, chaos with civil unrest, political deceit, and some have even lost their faith.  So, you ask, how is it we can be thankful for anything?  Well, God does know that there are a lot of us that are having a problem with prayer, thanksgiving, and praising Him.  He understands each of our situations, however, we need to reflect on what we do have, by searching our hearts, minds, and spirits.  Also, reflect on what good has been done and come out of this year.  After all, God is our only HOPE!  If we all would just take the time to stop and listen, we would hear and see the changes that have been made.  I know that God wants to bring us back to the family (this is being done), He wants His people to pray and come back to Him, and He wants an intimate relationship with the whole church, that is unconditional love, with Him and our neighbors.

First, what is needed is that we need to enter into His gates with THANKSGIVING and into His courts with PRAISE.

Psalm 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name.

David is a great example of how we should thank and praise God, no matter what the situation David was in, he always was giving thanks to God and praising God for how He was working in his life.  This is why we have the book of Psalms in our bibles, which is to show us how to worship God through being thankful and praising Him, no matter what the circumstances are.  David set the standards for praise and thanksgiving throughout his whole life, as he was very grateful and loved God with his whole life.  In 1Chronicles 16:7-36 is where David produced one of his first Psalms onto God with offering and music.  This portion in the New King James Version of the bible is called David’s Song of Thanksgiving.  Let us read this together:

⁷ On that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the Lord:

⁸ Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
⁹ Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
¹⁰ Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
¹¹ Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!

 

Within these first few verses, David was telling us that we need to seek God and call upon Him (pray)!  Give God thanks, honor, and glory for He is Glorious!  Then he proceeds on in verse 12…

¹² Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
¹³ O seed of Israel His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

¹⁴ He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
¹⁵ Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
¹⁶ The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
¹⁷ And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
¹⁸ Saying, “To you, I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
¹⁹ When you were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.

²⁰ When they went from one nation to another,
And from one kingdom to another people,
²¹ He permitted no man to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
²² Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”

 

In these verses, David was stating all that God had done for them so that God’s people would remember, what they needed to worship and thank God for.  Let us continue with verse 23.

 

²³ Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
²⁴ Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.

²⁵ For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
He is also to be feared above all gods.
²⁶ For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
²⁷ Honor and majesty are before Him;
Strength and gladness are in His place.

 

Within these few verses, we see that God is greater than all our problems and bigger than all of our idolatries.  We have a lot of idols within our lives and for this, we need to ask for forgiveness from God, as there are no other gods before Him.  No man, no money, no sports, no games, nothing, is before God and should never be.  This is a point we all need to come to within our lives.  It is something we are all guilty of.  Let us continue to verse 28,

 

²⁸ Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength.
²⁹ Give to the Lord the glory due to His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
³⁰ Tremble before Him, all the earth.
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved.

³¹ Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
³² Let the sea roar and all its fullness;
Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.
³³ Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord,
For He is coming to judge the earth.

³⁴ Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
³⁵ And say, “Save us, O God of our salvation;
Gather us together, and deliver us from the Gentiles,
To give thanks to Your holy name,
To triumph in Your praise.”

³⁶ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!

And all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

In the last verses, David was trying to get God’s people to worship Him for delivering them out of the hands of their enemies, to thank God for the many times that He had saved them from famine and destruction.  Remember, this was a time before Jesus, so God’s people had to rectify their sins with sacrifice.  David was sent to show them the way of thanksgiving, praise, and worship.  God shows us throughout the Bible that through prayer, praise, worship, and thanksgiving we are coming into the center of Him connecting us to Him with a special friendship, that will be more than any other friendship that we could ever have.

Through all of the trials we have faced throughout this year, there are two that seem to stand out the most.  One is how we pray or do not pray and the other is how we praise and thank God in the midst of it all.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 States

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So, how great is it to praise God and to thank Him for everything, as this is the will of God in Christ Jesus!  I know that during this season of Thanksgiving, Jesus wants us to rejoice in our lives regardless of what the circumstances may be.  I know that it is hard to thank God, however, this is much needed.  If there is nothing else you can get up every morning to thank God for the beautiful day and praise Him for giving you another day to be with your family and friends.  When we all take a look at what is happening all over the world we need to be humbled a little, as God has given us much to be thankful for.  Here are a few things we can thank God for this year of 2020, as it comes to an end within the next couple of months.

1.       For family and friends who have been through it all with you good and bad.

2.      For each new day that you wake up.

3.      For the food on your table, a roof over your head, and a family that loves you.

4.      For a job, if you have been able to work throughout this year.

5.      For the animals that are part of our families and the blessing of seeing wild animals every so often.

6.      For the beauty of the earth that we live in.

7.      For the freedoms, we have through Christ and within our own countries

8.      For God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

9.      For God’s unconditional love that He gave to us through His Son’s death and the Holy Spirit who He sent to give us peace and comfort.

Let us pray and reflect on this as we approach Thanksgiving Day and give our praises to God, who is definitely in control now and forever.

Heavenly Father-

We start by thanking You for all that You have done in our lives throughout this year of 2020.  We thank You for our families which You have blessed us with and ask that You keep them safe from this pandemic that we are going through.  Please be with those who are not able to get together with us for the holiday and show them how much we love them.  Keep us in Your care Lord and send Your Holy Spirit to help us through this time that we are in.  Heal our wonderful lands, Lord, within the whole earth as we praise You for the beauty that surrounds us, do not let this be taken from us.  Come to us Lord we pray, as we worship, and thank You for all that You are about to do in our lives.  We give You all the honor, glory, and praise forever to the end of time.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

AMEN