In America, the fourth Thursday of November is always recognized as Thanksgiving. This day is set aside for remembering God and thanking him for his many blessings. We falsely think of the first Thanksgiving,” as a gathering in 1621 involving the Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal together. Many stories have been told about this event. The Indians tell a story about how they saved the Pilgrims from certain starvation, and the Pilgrims tell a story of how they invited the Indians for dinner to introduce them to God. The true story is probably a combination of many stories told by both groups. We know that the Native American tribes did help the Pilgrims to get established here.
“But there were earlier “thanksgivings,” some going back several millennia. In Leviticus 7, for example, we read about a special kind of offering known as the “peace offering” or the “fellowship offering” (7:11). One variety of peace offering was a special expression of Thanksgiving to God (7:12). It included the usual animal sacrifice, but added various kinds of bread, both leavened and unleavened (7:12-13). One of each kind of bread was offered to the Lord, along with the animal that was sacrificed. But the bread was to be eaten by the priest, and the meat of the peace offering eaten by the one who offered it, along with his or her companions (7:14-15).” (Calling, n.d.)
Humans like to take credit for every event and often forget that we have a long history of people with many good ideas and inventions. We live in a time of overabundance, riches, and easy living. We often forget that it could all be taken away. Very few of us appreciate what we have, and even fewer give daily thanks. The Bible is full of reminders that tell us to be thankful and to give all credit to God. Being thankful is the same as showing gratitude. The following are several Bible verses that should help inspire our gratitude and show appreciation for our many blessings daily.
1 Timothy 4:4-5: “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”
Psalm 100:4: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.”
Colossians 2:6-7: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
Psalm 50:14: “Offer God a sacrifice of Thanksgiving! Fulfill the promises you made to the Highest!”
Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 9:10-11: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to God.”
Colossians 4:2: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Psalm 69:30: “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”
Psalm 28:7: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”
1 Corinthians 1:4: “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.”
Revelation 11:17: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.”
Jonah 2:9: “But I with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
1 Corinthians 15:57: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Hebrews 12:28-29: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.'”
Psalm 107:8-9: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
Psalm 95:2-3: “Let’s come before him with thanks! Let’s shout songs of joy to him! The Lord is a great God, the great king over all other gods.”
1 Chronicles 16:34: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Hebrews 13:15: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
1 Chronicles 29:13: “And now we thank you, Our God, and praise your glorious name.”
Psalm 30:12: “That my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
Jeremiah 30:19: “Out of them shall come songs of Thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.”
Psalm 85:12: “The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.”
Proverbs 3:9-10: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
Galatians 6:7-9: “A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Psalm 107:37: “They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest.”
Psalm 67:6: “The earth has yielded its harvest. God, our God, blesses us.”
Isaiah 9:3: “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.”
1 Corinthians 9:10: “Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when farmers plow and thresh, they should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.”
Isaiah 9:3: “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as soldiers rejoice when dividing the plunder.”
Revelation 14:15: “Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, ‘Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'”
Proverbs 18:20: “From the fruit of their mouths people’s stomachs are filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.”
Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Psalm 4:7 “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”
Calling, T. H. (n.d.). The First Thanksgiving? Retrieved from Theology of Work: https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/first-thanksgiving/#:~:text=What%20Leviticus%20describes%20is%20actually,Leviticus%20were%20lavish%20and%20delightful.