THANKSGIVING 2022

Ps.65:9 – You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; the stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for so You prepare the earth.

The challenge all of us face everyday has to do with our perception of everything around us. Is our world view caught up with inflation, interest rates, gas and food prices (should I continue?) or are we fixated on the incredible beauty of God and His sovereign plan unfolding all around us? Many of us find ourselves slipping from one perspective to the next. That’s why Thanksgiving is so important. It is a day (or a season) where we focus on His goodness and His bountiful provision for us all. He is good and His mercies are not only new everyday, they are continuous. Here is an excerpt from a Thanksgiving Day sermon from 1726 by the twenty three year old Jonathan Edwards at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

“He shows his infinite power in creating those things which subserve to our necessity and delight: in creating the earth for us to dwell upon, and the air for us to breath in and water for our drink; in creating the visible heavens and heavenly bodies to shed down their influences upon [us]. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. God’s power as easily extended that vast expanse of the starry heavens as we can spread a curtain, or as a man can set up a tent.…And God shows that nothing is too hard for him to do for us by the strength [of his arm] in so ordering, moving and directing those things so as to make them administer to our good, particularly in moving and managing the heavenly bodies so that they may be under advantages in the best manner to diffuse their light and heat all over the face of the earth. What a mighty strength is required to manage the system of the world, to fix the ordinances of heaven and keep the mighty heavenly bodies in their swift and regular courses!”

So the Lord is orchestrating all of His creation, using His wisdom and power to care for you and for me. No matter what has happened this year the Lord has been there for all of us, seeing us through, more than seeing us through, empowering us to victory. So I am thankful for Thanksgiving 2022. I anticipate many great things between now and Thanksgiving 2023. I will thank Him for all He has done this year as well as glorify Him for His bounty yet to come.