On October 3, 1789 President Washington proclaimed the first Thanksgiving. “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, [I] recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
He was incredibly wise to do so. God desires that the entire world offer to him heartfelt thanksgiving (Ps. 100:1). It is one way we honor God (Ps. 50:23). We are commanded “in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th. 5:18). For all eternity Christians will be offering thanks to God for His salvation (Re. 7:12).
God Himself says that thanksgiving offers each one of us deep and lasting benefits. Your peace of heart depends upon being thankful to God (Pp. 4:6-7); as well as your financial health (2 Co. 9:8-11). It is essential to having your prayers answered (2 Co. 1:11), and it is part of living a Spirit-filled life (Ep. 5:20).
A lack of thanksgiving is extremely expensive. God says that when people stop being thankful to Him, it begins a frightful fall into spiritual and moral darkness. First, it affects one’s ability to reason. “They did not honor Him as God, or give thanks, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing to be wise, they became fools” (Ro. 1:21-22). Along with foolish thinking on both a moral and physical level, unthankfulness to God results in one worshiping nature rather than God (Ro. 1:23). For this worship of creation rather than the Creator, God gives the unthankful up to immorality (Ro. 1:24). If there is no repentance from this immorality, God gives them up to homosexuality (Ro. 1:26-27). A lack of turning to God from homosexuality results in the Lord abandoning them to deep depravity as Romans 1:28-32 says “And just as they did not see fit [a]to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are gossips, slanderers, [b]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.”
So you see George Washington was indeed extremely wise to seek to found this nation with a spirit of Thanksgiving. Without thanksgiving people are given over to God’s judgment. With thanksgiving true Christians will enjoy the temporal and eternal blessings of God.
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Steven D. Owen is the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Monroe.
