by Pastor Victor Chen

During the Christmas season, much has been made about putting “Christ” back into “Christmas”. We make it a priority to actually remember the Lord rather than gifts, lights or fancy decorations.

However, we need to make it just as much a priority to remember the Lord during Thanksgiving. 

This time of the year has been overtaken with sales and deals (Black Friday comes early and isn’t even on Friday?) Thanksgiving can be more about family gatherings, food and being grateful in general (to whom it is not clear). 

But the whole purpose of the Thanksgiving holiday was to give thanks to the Lord. 

And though the community gathering of Pilgrims and Native Americans to give thanks to the Lord is not found in the Bible, the practice and exhortation to “give thanks to the Lord” is.

So just as we make it a point to say, “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”, let’s remember to reference “the Lord” when we give thanks. 

Instead of saying, “I’m thankful for …”, let’s say, “I’m thankful to the Lord for …”

Instead of saying, “Be thankful”, let’s say, “Be thankful to the Lord”.

Instead of saying, “Give thanks”, let’s say, “Give thanks to the Lord”.

We make it a point to remember all that we should be thankful for. Let’s just remember who the source of all blessings is and who we should be thankful to (lest we end up thanking ourselves!). 

For just as much as the Christmas season is an opportunity to point others to Christ, the Thanksgiving holiday is an opportunity to point others to the Lord. 

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. 

He is good indeed.

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever! -Psalm 118:1 (ESV)

by Victor Chen

When we think of Thanksgiving, we can imagine a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting — a warm family with beaming smiles, eagerly gathered around a picturesque table as the father prepares to carve a delicious turkey. 

That becomes the standard for our Thanksgiving. That becomes the feeling we try to capture. That becomes the setting we try to recreate.

And we fall woefully short, year after year.

Expectation turns to disappointment. Anticipation turns to bitterness. Our families aren’t idyllic. Our homes turn out to be more cold than warm. Our situations don’t seem very happy at all.

But let’s reset and try to find Thanksgiving in the Bible. 

Picture the apostle Paul in prison, awaiting impending execution. Even if he was under house arrest, imagine the social stigma and the loneliness. 

There is no warm meal to be shared around the table. There are no friends or family to enjoy company with. 

And yet, it is here that we find Thanksgiving in the Bible. Not the American holiday to be celebrated (or dreaded) each year. But a true heart of thanksgiving that is not contingent on situation or close company. 

Thanksgiving in the Bible is not a holiday or a setting or even a feeling. 

Thanksgiving in the Bible is a matter of the heart and it comes supernaturally only through the Lord.

Every day, in every moment and in everything, I pray that we, like the apostle Paul, would be marked by this happy thanksgiving.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13 ESV)