Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

Ah yes, Thanksgiving. I feel about it how the old round preacher felt about Christmas: there is certainly no religion in the keeping of Thanksgiving Day, as a holy observance, but yet we are, with the Spurgeon, glad for the extra day together afforded to families by it. On this account, to adapt his own phrasing, I could wish there were 20 Thanksgiving Days.

The giving of thanks is an exotic plant that only grows in its native soil: a heavenly heart. The giving of thanks is the mark of the child of God, just as ingratitude is the mark of Satan’s own little ones. It is that badge of dishonor given to them by the apostle: “they did not…give thanks” (Romans 1:21).

Fear not, I will not be giving you the salutary observe Thanksgiving spiritually (for this is true of all things, after its own fashion), nor its sister-exhortation, Make everyday a Thanksgiving. Rather, I simply want to observe that you are either a thankful person or you are not. No amount of exertion on your end of things can produce it, just as no amount of, shall we say, inaction can squelch it. It is either there, or it is not, because you are either it, or you are not it.

Take this week to examine whether it is so with you. How fares it with your soul? For it is the proof of nothing less than your eternal destiny, in whatever direction that may be. You are either a recipient of God’s free gift of eternal life to sinners through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ, or you are not. Secure for yourself the blessed status of giver of thanks by trusting in Jesus today.