The Prayers of Thanks
November is the traditional month for celebrating Thanksgiving. Over the years we have forgotten what this day is all about. It’s no more about the history of the first European settlers in 1620 who came on the Mayflower. It is no longer about the harsh winter that they had to endure where many died. It is no longer about the celebration they had in 1621 after their first harvest. The celebration lasted three days. 90 American Indians and 53 pilgrims attended. The pilgrims were used to having a day of thanksgiving and prayer, thanking God for their blessing and victories. The pilgrims were a people of prayer and fasting. In 1623, after prayer and fasting and 14 days of rain resulted in a larger harvest, they once again had a thanksgiving day, but this time it was not the church that called for the day but the governor. From this a National Day of Prayer was instituted which we still have today.
President John F. Kennedy issued Proclamation 3560 on November 5, 1963 stating, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God.” Our American history is full of prayer and thanksgiving and faith in the One true God. We are Judeo-Christians because we share the Scriptures of the Jewish people. It is their faith that we have been grafted into. Romans 11:17 says, “It is as if some of the branches from an olive tree have been broken off. You non-Jewish people are like the branch of a wild olive tree that has been joined to that first tree. You now share the strength and life of the first tree, the Jews.”
But it seems over the last decade or two we have really taken a wide swing away from this foundation, both in our government and in our private beliefs. Our schools no longer teach the truth about this day or any day in our history. We now have a culture that is becoming farther and farther from the truth of our foundation not only with our Constitution but with the Word of God. We cry out, “Separation between church and state!” which has been so misconstrued over the decades. Our forefathers never separated themselves or this country from God and the Constitution. The people, the church and God were as a three braided cord. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “ A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” But we have begun to unravel that cord and we have begun to see more and more division in this land. A house divided will fall, that is what Yeshua (Jesus) told us in Mark 3:25. We see more and more violence and contention and we are losing our foundation and the reason this country was formed. Let us not forget that God birthed this country and it was the One True God who brought us through our toughest times. He gave us the victory in the Revolutionary War and in the Civil War and every war. He brought us through thick and thin. God was there and our country knew it and they had their times of thanksgiving and prayer. Today we do not win our wars. We do not have victories. We have suffered through many hard days. Homelessness and murder are at their all time highs. Drugs and alcohol are destroying our society. Sex and violence is everywhere, from on our TVs to the big screen and we are living out what we are seeing. We have turned to other gods and beliefs.
How long will we continue in this downward spiral? We say, “God bless America” as if it is some kind of mantra or formula that pleases the gods. God is not blessing us and the situation in this country speaks toward that fact. But we do not come and bow our hearts to the One True Living God, the Creature of all things, seen and unseen. We do not accept the sacrifice of his only begotten Son. Last year, 2016, 90,000 Christians were martyred for their faith. Anti-Semitism is on the rise like we haven’t seen since before the Holocaust. We call evil good and good evil.
We MUST pray. We MUST come and humble ourselves. We MUST repent of our sins. We MUST awaken our souls to the One True Living God. You may agree with me or you may not. I can only pray that eyes and hearts will be open to see truth.
This Thanksgiving let us turn off the TVs and let us leave the shopping for a day and let us celebrate Thanksgiving with our family in a time of prayer and thanksgivings, reading the Word of God. In love let us sit down to those blessings that God has bestowed on us and say Grace. God, Family and Country: the three-stranded cord that cannot be easily broken. United we stand!
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