November 22, 2001 - American Thanksgiving
German pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled town of Eilenburg during the horrors of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Eilenburg became an overcrowded refuge for the surrounding area. The fugitives suffered from epidemic and famine. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenburg. But one abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkhart officiated at the funerals of the other two. As the only pastor left, he often conducted services for as many as 40 to 50 persons a day - some 4,480 in all. In May of that year, his own wife died. By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services. Yet living in a world dominated by death, Pastor Rinkart wrote the following prayer for his children to offer to the Lord:
Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.
Copyright 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity
Harry Genet
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Spurgeon Archive
Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing - a grateful heart!
George Herbert
Biography
Strength, rest, guidance, grace, help, sympathy, love - all from God to us!! What a list of blessings!
E. Stenbock
The failure to return thanks for definite blessings received is a manifestation of ingratitude that grieves Jesus Christ.
(Reuben Archer) R. A. Torrey
Biography and Works
Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.
Augustine
Works and Biography
Gratitude... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Nouwen Centre
God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.
Max Lucado
Upwords
We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer Home Page
A heart that does not have the true ability to be utterly and genuinely delighted and grateful at the simple gift given by a friend, will find it equally as difficult to be utterly delighted in the gifts given by the King.
Katherine Walden
I Lift My Eyes Web Ministries
It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful "in general." It's very strange. It's a little like being married in general.
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
Calvin Seminary
Whenever a man allows himself to have anxieties, fears, or complaints, he must consider his behavior as either a denial of the wisdom of God or as a confession that he is out of his will. To be always in a thankful state of heart before God is not to be considered a high plane of spirituality but rather the normal attitude of one who believes that "all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to his purpose."
William Law
Biography and Works
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Just Say Thanks By R.T. Kendall When that surprise bill arrives, you miss an appointment because of traffic snarls, or the in-laws arrive unexpectedly at the worst possible time - can you say "thanks"? Gratitude doesn't come naturally, says Kendall. Using stories, songs, Scripture, and more he teaches three invaluable principles to help you foster a lifestyle steeped in thankfulness. |
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Nouwen Centre
Being thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground. Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life may be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings are slipping through our fingers.
Craig Barnes
Biography
More Craig Barnes Materials
{The soul} must forget about {understanding}, and abandon itself into the arms of love, and His Majesty will teach it what to do next; almost its whole work is to realize its unworthiness to receive such great good and to occupy itself in thanksgiving.
Teresa of Avila
Biography
If you can't be thankful for what you receive, be thankful for what you escape.
Anonymous
You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Spurgeon Archive
Begin by thanking Him for some little thing, and then go on, day by day, adding to your subjects of praise; thus you will find their numbers grow wonderfully; and, in the same proportion, will your subjects of murmuring and complaining diminish, until you see in everything some cause for thanksgiving.
Priscilla Maurice
From a heart overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honour and glorify God by gratefully offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God of grace and glory
Anonymous
Cultivate a thankful spirit! It will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings.
J. R. MacDuff
Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices.
Thomas Fuller
Short Biography
The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Biography and Bibliography
Where do you stand in your relationship with the Lord? People often say, God is good to me, by which they mean that they have experienced good health or prosperity. What a person possesses is not always a safe measure of his dedication to the Lord.
Theodore Epp
Biography and Devotionals
The careless soul receives the Father's gifts as if it were a way things had of dropping into his hand... yet he is ever complaining, as if someone were accountable for the problems which meet him at every turn. For the good that comes to him, he gives no thanks - who is there to thank? At the disappointments that befall him he grumbles - there must be someone to blame!
George Macdonald
The Golden Key Website
More George MacDonald Materials
We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress.
Francis Frangipane
Ministries of Francis Frangipane
Thanksgiving is the language of heaven, and we had better start to learn it if we are not to be mere dumb aliens there.
Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip
Online Article.
Receive every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God's goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account: and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.
William Law
Biography and Works Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Blessings hemmed with praise will not unravel.
Anonymous
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A Thankful Heart: How Gratitude Brings Hope and Healing to Our Lives By Carole Lewis An "attitude of gratitude" can make a world of difference---even in the midst of life's worst tragedies. In A Thankful Heart: How Gratitude Brings Hope and Healing to Our Lives, Carole Lewis, creator of the First Place weight-loss program, shares a personal testimony of thankfulness despite the tragic death of her daughter, killed by a drunk driver on Thanksgiving Day 2001. |
Ingratitude denotes spiritual immaturity. Infants do not always appreciate what parents do for them. They have short memories. Their concern is not what you did for me yesterday, but what are you doing for me today. The past is meaningless and so is the future. They live for the present. Those who are mature are deeply appreciative of those who laboured in the past. They recognize those who labour during the present and provide for those who will be labouring in the future.
Anonymous
The optimist says, the cup is half full. The pessimist says, the cup is half empty. The child of God says; My cup runneth over.
Anonymous
Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Henry Ward Beecher
Archives
Oh what a happy soul am I although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world contented I shall be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep and sigh, because I'm blind? I cannot and I won't.
Fanny Crosby
Website
Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby
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Thank You For This Food: Action Prayers, Songs and Blessings For Mealtime By Debbie Trafton O'Neal "Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest" How many of us as children began our meal with this invitation? Now children everywhere can thank God for daily bread with this new collection of action prayers, songs, and thankful table graces. Charming full-color illustrations by well-known illustrator Nancy Munger combine with traditional and new table prayers to make giving thanks at mealtimes a joyful experience for the whole family. Recommended for ages 4 to 8. |
Heavenly Father: Teach us that love and forgiveness are essential bridges that span the chasms of resentment and bitterness. Also, teach us that feeling gratitude without expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it.
Anonymous
How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?
Anonymous
(On the night he was robbed:) I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.
Matthew Henry
Biography Resources
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