Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States, and Thanksgiving 2019 occurs on Thursday, November 28. However, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different date. In 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the second Monday in October, which is called Columbus Day in the United States. For Christians, Thanksgiving not only has a patriotic history, but it also has spiritual roots that go back to the Old Testament.

If we see The history of Happy Thanksgiving Images In the United States, Thanksgiving is historically a day to praise and thank God the Father for blessings and to ask Him to heal the wounds of the nation. It was also a national day of penitence to humbly repent for our sinfulness and disobedience.

Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

History of the First Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln wasn't the first president to declare a national day of thanksgiving for the people of the United States. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed "a day of public thanksgiving and thanks" to thank God for his protection and as the source of all that is good. In his proclamation he wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26thday of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be —That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks — for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation…"

The history of Thanksgiving in the United States is often traced back to 1621 when the Plymouth Colony settlers and the Wampanoag shared a meal celebrating the harvest. Their trial began in 1620 with the voyage of the storiedMayflower, a 65-day-long ordeal in which 102 men, women, and children crossed the stormy Atlantic in a space the size of a city bus. Then followed a cruel New England winter for which they were ill prepared. Due more to exposure than starvation, their number dwindled rapidly, so that by the onset of spring fully half of them had died. Fourteen of the eighteen wives had perished, and widowers and orphans abounded. That the Pilgrims could celebrate at all in this setting was aboth to human resilience and heavenly hope.

Yet celebrate they did, sometime in the autumn of 1621 after God had granted them a bountiful harvest. It’s an inspiring story, and it’s good forthis Thanksgiving to remember it. I don’t know about you, but I am always encouraged when I sit down with Christian friends and hear of how God has sustained them in hard times. Remembering the Pilgrims’ story is a lot like that, although the testimony comes to us not from across the room but from across the centuries.The celebration lasted for three days. Here's how settler Edward Winslow described their thankful hearts, "And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty." The tradition of giving thanks continued spontaneously in the colonies.

Winslow wrote at length about the occasion thatthe Pilgrimswould have remembered as their first Thanksgiving Day in America. It occurred in the summer of 1623, nearly two years after the event that we commemorate. During that summer a two-month-long drought threatened to wipe out the Pilgrims’ crops, and the prospect of starvation in the coming winter loomed over them. In response, Governor Bradford "set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer, in this great distress.” The Pilgrims gathered for a prayer service that lasted some 8-9 hours, and by its end, a day that had begun hot and clear had become overcast, and for the next fourteen days a steady, gentle rain restored the parched earth. "But, O the mercy of our God,” Winslow exulted, "who was as ready to hear as we to ask.” (excerpted from)

Some historians link the pilgrims' Thanksgiving celebration to the holiday of Sukkot, also called the Feast of Tabernacles in. Other scholars point out the Puritans' debate of having a fixed date to give thanks; instead, they would proclaim special days of prayer. While the link between Thanksgiving and Sukkot is uncertain, there is no doubt that God calls his people to give thanks.

A Thanksgiving Sacrifice

God set up a system for the Israelites to show their thankfulness through a specific thanksgiving sacrifice called a peace offering

"And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with loaves of leavened bread."

The person who made this type of sacrifice was doubly blessed. First, he had a situation that caused him to want to give thanks to God, and second, he was able to celebrate the blessing by sharing a good meal with the priest and others.

"I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord."

Jesus taught His disciples to make sure they had been reconciled in their relationships before making a sacrifice.

"So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

Thanksgiving Allows Us to Give Praise and Thanks to God

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! We give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and His love.”

"Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!”

Our choice to give thanks should be based on God's name and His character — His righteousness, goodness, and love.

"I will give to the Lord the thanks due to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High."

God's steadfast love is the number one reason we should give thanks. "…'Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!' For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord."

The phrase "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!" is found in six different verses.

In case we missed how important this is,repeats this three times:

Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. 136:2

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever. 136:3

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever. 136:26

"… I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds."

"Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

"… O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!"

"… will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Thanksgiving Reminds Us to Be More Than Grateful

For many people, the Thanksgiving holiday is a time to be grateful. Interestingly, the word "grateful" is not in the King James Version of theand listed only once in the New International Version (NIV) and the English Standard Version (ESV). Similarly, "gratitude" is only listed a couple of times in the NIV and once in the ESV.

What's wrong with being grateful? Gratitude is an attitude. Giving thanks is an action. Gratitude appreciates the blessings in one's life, but on its own, it is insufficient. Christians are called to be doers of the word. We have to go beyond being grateful and be intentional about giving thanks.

The Bible commands us to give thanks. "Give Thanks" appears in the Bible over 128 times in 62 verses. In the majority of these verses, "Give thanks" is an imperative. As believers, we are to actively give thanks to God for who He is and the great things He has done.

The command to give thanks is not based on our circumstances but on who God is. We are to thank God in anticipation of what He can do.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

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