THANKSGIVING 1734

Ps.95:2 – Let’s come before His presence with a song of thanksgiving,

Let’s shout joyfully to Him in songs with instruments.

The church in Northampton, Massachusetts in November of 1734 lived in a time you could call as a crossroads in the historic plans of God. The church in Northampton was pastored by Jonathan Edwards at that time and would ultimately become the catalyst of the Great Awakening and the birth of our nation. Before I get too far ahead of myself let’s think for a moment what Thanksgiving in 1734 was like. The folks in this church were all descendants of the original settlers of the colony in Massachusetts that had begun almost 150 years in their past. America was to become a nation in the next twenty years, that seems like an impossibility when you consider what was going on in those colonies. Spiritual lethargy and formalism had set in a long time ago and the thirteen colonies were all struggling spiritually and economically, survival itself was even a question. There was a struggle with the Natives, the French, and the English; one nation under God was way off of the table. That all began to change in the fall of 1734 in this frontier church in Northampton. The power of God began to fall and the whole city was put into a spiritual upheaval. Many scores of people were being born again and a passion for the Lord literally consumed the city. That November this church had plenty to be thankful for, God was in the house and their whole world was being changed. Here is an excerpt from Edwards sermon that Thanksgiving.

“If ever we would go to heaven, we must be fitted for heaven in this world; we must here have our souls moulded and fashioned for that work and that happiness. They must be formed for praise, and they must begin their work here. The beginnings of future things are in this world. The seed must be sown here; the foundation must be laid in this world. Here is laid the foundation of future misery, and of future happiness. If it be not begun here, it never will be begun. If our hearts be not in some measure tuned to praise in this world, we shall never do any thing at the work hereafter. The light must dawn in this world, or the sun will never rise in the next. As we therefore all of us would be, and hope to be, of that blessed company which praise God in heaven, we should now inure ourselves to the work.”

What was Edwards talking about in that great and historic Thanksgiving time in 1740? He was encouraging his church, many who were brand new believers, to begin to live a life of praise and Thanksgiving. How else can we respond when we see the goodness of the Lord in our lives? Let’s make Thanksgiving 2025 another historic time in America, its time for the Lord to fall in our land again.