Fight with Thanksgiving

This week we are celebrating Thanksgiving in our land, and this really is one of the great vestiges of a once vibrant Christian faith. Our nation has turned away from God in significant ways, and so giving thanks can seem difficult or odd when so much has gone wrong.

But we need to remember that giving thanks is not merely what we do when God has given us victory and success – it’s not merely what we do when we have fought and won – giving thanks is what we do in order to fight, in order to win. We fight with thanksgiving. And that is what we do here at this Thanksgiving meal week after week. We celebrate the salvation of the world in the death and resurrection of our King every week. We give thanks for His certain victory – that we do not yet see accomplished – in order that it might be accomplished in us and our children and in every nation of men. That is what we are doing here, and we want to ask God to make our thanksgiving everywhere else to have the same potency.

Remember, when Jesus first instituted this Thanksgiving meal it was before He was betrayed and crucified. And when He rose from the dead, the gospel was preached and a few thousand were baptized in Jerusalem. And they were sharing this meal from house to house, believing what it proclaimed before it had barely even begun to happen. And ever since Christians have shared this Thanksgiving meal all over the world, announcing what will surely be before they have actually seen it. Even those first Christian American pilgrims were giving thanks in faith, not only truly thankful for what God had given, but believing Him for what He would give.

Thanksgiving is not merely what we do as a result of the blessings God has already given, Thanksgiving is also what we do in faith, in the sure and certain hope of the blessings God will give. So give thanks for the end of abortion in our land. Give thanks for the end of sexual perversion and exploitation. Give thanks for the reformation and revival that God will send on our land. Give thanks for the salvation of your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Give thanks by faith in Jesus.

And so come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

 

I’ll be speaking in Minneapolis next week. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.