GOD IN OUR MIDST SUPPLIES

Isa.12:6 – Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

There is something spiritual and even supernatural about Thanksgiving Day. It is a truly an American holiday and captures the essence of our foundation and purpose as a nation. The original settlers came to North America in search of religious freedom. They found a strange and foreign land and were only able to survive by what they determined was the grace of God. Their response to God’s protection and provision was Thanksgiving Day. They began to set aside a day at the end of harvest each year to give thanks to the Lord. Jonathan Edwards preached a message on Thanksgiving in 1735 giving thanks for what he considered was their greatest blessing, God Himself in their midst. Here is an excerpt from that sermon about the connection of God’s presence and His provision.

“The river that supplies the city of God, is a full and never-failing stream: there is enough, and it never is dry. And they that trust in God, and whose hope the Lord is, they shall be like trees “planted by the waters that spreadeth forth her roots, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, nor shall cease from yielding fruit” [Jer. 17:8]. God has promised that he will never fail them, nor forsake them.
The people that has God amongst them, they have the fountain of all good in the midst of them. There is a full fountain, indeed an inexhaustible and infinite fountain, enough for the supply of everyone, under all their circumstances and necessities: whatever anyone wants, he may go to this fountain, and there he may have a supply. Such a people that have this God amongst them, may glory in him, and say, “The Lord is our shepherd; we shall not want” [Ps. 23:1]; and may say, as in Hab. 3:17–18, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will we rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of our salvation.”

We happily carry on this tradition almost 300 years later. We have so much to be thankful for in our church, God is here with us and He faithfully provides all of our needs. I pray that this Thanksgiving will be a special one for you and your family.