Why Every Day Should Be Thanksgiving
By Pastor Ellis White
Senior Pastor
“Do they celebrate Thanksgiving in England?” is a question I get asked multiple times every year around this time. I usually respond with something like, “Yes, we’re thankful every day.”
Joking aside, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in England (although, the pilgrims were English, so we kind of invented it) and I’m grateful that we set aside one day every year here in the United States to be thankful. But, according to the Bible, we should be practicing thanksgiving every single day.
The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, entreated them to give “thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20) Thanksgiving is to be done at all times and for all things, and it is ultimately to be directed to the Father, in the name of the Son.
However, this constant thanksgiving doesn’t just happen by us trying harder. It is a direct consequence of being filled with the Spirit. The full context of that verse in Ephesians is a command by Paul to “be filled with the Spirit,” (5:18) out of which flows several things, including “giving thanks always and for everything.” (5:20) Continual thanksgiving is a direct result of being filled with the Spirit.
So, as we approach this national holiday, I invite you to take some time to invite God to fill you with his Holy Spirit, so that out of you may flow continual thanksgiving. And then practice that thankfulness by taking some time daily, perhaps right before you go to sleep, to list off things for which you are thankful and give that thanks to God.
Tomorrow, we’ll be completing our Live the Vision series by talking about how we can get from here to the vision to which we believe the Lord has called us. We’ll consider how the early church lived out their Christian walk in Acts 2:42-47, and following the sermon, we’ll have a chance for each of us to commit (or recommit) to those same practices—to worship, serve, connect and reach. I look forward to worshipping with you either at 9:00 or 10:30 am tomorrow.
Pastor Ellis