“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.” This scripture verse is in 1 Chronicles 16:34.  As we enter into this season of Thanksgiving and the day that this world sets aside and calls Thanksgiving Day, we should certainly all take a moment to reflect upon all of the blessings that God has given us.  The question is; just what should we be giving thanks to the Lord for?

For many years I reflected on Thanksgiving Day of all the wonderful things that God had given me.  You know what I mean, I thanked Him for the nice car that I drove, the nice house that I lived in, the well-paying job that had and so on and so forth.  Now, please understand that there is nothing wrong with these things.  I am still grateful to God for each of them and grateful that He has entrusted me with some pretty nice stuff here on this earth!  For all of the material things that God has given us, we should be thankful.

However, is that really the most important thing we should be thankful for on Thanksgiving?  Of course not!  So, what else should we be thankful for?  Should we be thankful for our families and friends?  Well, I certainly am thankful for my family and friends.  The past twelve months have seen just about everything for me.  I have experienced sadness, loss, heartache, experienced remorse for things I have said and done and wished like everything I could take them back.  However, in the past few months I have experienced a spiritual renewal like I never dreamed possible as God has blessed me far more than I deserve or ever dreamed He would again.  Through all of this, there have been many family members and friends that have stood by me through good times and bad.  I could not be more thankful for them than I am this year and I sure do look forward to spending time with them this Thanksgiving and for many, many more!

God has also seen fit to bring a lot of new people and friends into my life recently!  I lost a couple of dear friends this year, one due to my own actions and another because God chose to call them Home.  However, God has seen fit to replace them many times over and I am so appreciative of the people He has brought into my life.  I love my new friends and I am so thankful for them, and to God for bringing them to me, this holiday season.

So, is this what Thanksgiving is all about?  Spending time with family and friends and enjoying their company?  Well, I love that but no, this is not completely what Thanksgiving is all about either!

It has taken me a long time but I have finally realized that Thanksgiving is about thanking God for what He has done for us!  Those things which cannot be touched or seen.  Oh, it is true … God has given us and blessed us with all of those material things and it is true that God has given us and blessed us with our family and friends but the ultimate gift and blessing from God was His Son, the one who died on a Cross to bear my sins, and your sins too!  So, this Thanksgiving Day, I thank God for saving my soul!  I thank Him for sticking with me through some very tough times in my life and I thank Him for never giving up on this old (okay, middle aged) sinner!

I love the song “Through It All” and I especially love the lines that say “I thank God for the mountains.  I thank Him for the valleys.  I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.  For if I never had a problem, how would I know that He could solve them.  How would I know what faith in God could do.” Thanking God for the trials is not an easy thing to do.  No one that I know likes going through trials but we must remember that it is in those times of trials that God does the most work in our lives.  He helps us to learn to trust in Him more and to realize that He is working every circumstance, good and bad in our eyes, for His good!

So, I encourage you to take some time to reflect on the true blessings from God this Thanksgiving.  Psalm 100:4 says “Enter His gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.” This Thanksgiving day be sure to thank God for the good times and the bad times and be certain to thank Him for sending His son and saving you!  Really, shouldn’t we be doing that every day?

From all of us here at the Southern Gospel Music Forum, we wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.