The Importance of Thanksgiving

Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,

Romans 1:21

This week is Thanksgiving week. What a great Holiday! We don’t think of Thanksgiving as a religious holiday, like Christmas and Easter, but it is right in line with Scripture. 

According to Scripture it is the normal and right response to give thanks to God. In Romans 1, we see by contrast the importance of being thankful to God for who He is and what He has done for us. The unrighteous in Romans 1were not thankful to God, and their hearts were darkened.

Our culture almost forces us to be ungrateful. Modern advertising is built on making people covet. We always think of what we don’t have or how much more others have than we do. In reality, if you live in America, you have it much better than the rest of the world.

The Bible tells us that we should be thankful to God. Acts 14 states that God“¹⁷ … did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” God is good and He has been good to all. He gives us life and sustains our life. He gives us loved ones with whom we can enjoy that life with.  At the very least we should be thankful to Him for giving and sustaining our lives.

If you have trouble being thankful, do what my wife and I do. Every Thanksgiving we take time during our drive to Tennessee where we each list everything we can think of that we are thankful for. It becomes kind of a competition as we go back and forth trying to outlast one another. People are even doing this on social media. If you take time to thank God for everything you have to be thankful for, you will begin to see just how blessed you are and you will genuinely be thankful on Thanksgiving.