Christ Community Church

Have you ever considered the irony of Thanksgiving break?  We took a day to reflect on all of the great gifts we have been given… only to turn around and buy more the following day.  It seems to me that we give Thanksgiving less than 24 hours to sink in before we trample each other at the mall in our quest for more.  Perhaps an overview of thankfulness is in order.

Old Testament thankfulness: The Jews had entire ceremonies, instruments, offerings, and songs set aside for nothing but thanking God.  When God rescued them as a nation, they gave thanks.  When He rescued them as individuals, they gave thanks.  When they got rid of the false gods from among them, they thanked God.  Certain priests were assigned to give thanks on behalf of the people every morning and every evening.  When David collected money from the people to build the temple of God, He thanked God for the funds. After the temple was built and God’s presence descended on it as a flame, they gave thanks.  When Daniel was told he could no longer pray to God, he went back to his home and kept up his habit of praying to God three times every day… giving thanks.  When they had been taken captive for decades and were now finally able to return to their own land Nehemiah produced a virtual musical with two choirs marching along the walls of Jerusalem belting out songs of thanksgiving to God.  They gave thanks for God’s nearness, His righteousness, their own joy, His goodness, His faithfulness, His answers to their prayers, His salvation/rescue of them and more.  Thanksgiving was everywhere.

New Testament thankfulness: In the New Testament, the trend continues and Jesus Himself exemplifies thankfulness.  When Jesus was about to feed thousands of people by miraculously multiplying a few loaves of bread and a couple fish, He gave thanks before doing so.  When Jesus’ dear friend Lazarus was dead in the tomb, before He raised His from the dead, He gave thanks.  When He was eating the last supper with His disciples and knew He was about to be arrested, tried, and murdered… He gave thanks.  The very practice that He told us to continue from that night, eating the bread and drinking the wine as a remembrance of Him and what He has done for us… is called the eucharist, which comes from a Greek word meaning… thanksgiving.  Jesus commanded that we regularly gather together and give thanks to God in what we call communion.  If Jesus valued thanksgiving so much, shouldn’t we who claim to follow Him?
Paul went on to start most of his letters in the NT with thankfulness for the people he was writing to and for what God was doing in their lives.  In fact, he says that we should give thanks in everything and in every circumstance.  In Romans 1:21, he directly links a lack of thankfulness to God with mankind being turned over to the depravity of his own mind and the horrible things that ensue.  In 2 Corinthians 4:15, Paul states that one intended result of the gospel is that thanksgiving will overflow to the glory of God.  Thankfulness is everywhere
One of the defining characteristics of a Jesus follower is thankfulness.  And why wouldn’t it, after all that He has done to our benefit and His own glory?  Does it characterize you?

Leo Barnes
Pastor of Youth Ministries

Please send any questions or comments to lbarnes@ccczion.org.