Hello friends. Today is an awesome day to celebrate that the Lord is alive in us and on this Earth. It's hard for us to see that sometimes I think, because our present circumstances feel overwhelming. I know that this has been a hard year. But we are coming into the Advent season. And I've never thought about before how Thanksgiving really is a part of that season. Before we can get into the Christmas Holiday, it is so important to set our hearts into an attitude of Thanksgiving. After all, that should be our posture when it comes to Christmas, that we are thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus coming to our Earth to be with us. So, as we reflect on the past year, and look with hopefulness to the year to come, let's be thankful for Emmanuel, God with us.
“O
come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord;
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with a song of thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth;
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it [by His command];
And His hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and prayer].
For He is our God
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts and become
spiritually dull as at Meribah [the place of strife],
And as at Massah [the place of testing] in the wilderness,”
Psalm 95:1-8 Amplified Bible
So, lately my house has been filled with the sweetest music. We relocated the piano from my mother’s house to our house and we have all been playing it, including the 9 month old. But, it has reminded me of how much I love music. And I believe it has awakened something in my oldest daughter as well. She sings. It’s the most precious sound. Sometimes it’s soft and sometimes is sweet and sometimes it’s downright loud and crazy, but she is so happy to be doing it. When her little sister gets fussy in the car I can hear the softest, “Twinkle, twinkle little star.” Or Better yet, the version we have sung to her so often: “Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder where you’re at.” (Thanks to Alice in Wonderland for that one.) It makes this mama heart so happy.
These verses from Psalm 95 remind me that as much as I love to hear my daughter sing, our Heavenly Father loves to hear us sing too. Singing is an act of worship. It tells God how much we love him. It tells him how thankful we are for him and all he has done for us. It humbles us to bow before God in all his glory.
But, it also does something for us. Worship in song, or any kind really, helps us to focus on God and all that he has done. That’s get our hearts in the right place. If you read the verses from Psalm 95 again it shows us that singing to the Lord, and worshiping him, protects our hearts. It reminds us who we belong to, so that when strife and testing come, we can hear God and not become hard hearted and spiritually dull. I love reading different translations because it expands my understanding of the verses. But, that’s maybe another topic for another day.
So, I know we don’t sing a lot of Thanksgiving carols. Yes, we sing a few hymns about Thanksgiving this time of year, and Matthew West just released an awesome Thanksgiving Song (check it out here). But, really as we head toward Christmas we will be singing so many songs about the Holiday. Some will remind us of God and his love for us. Others may remind us of presents, and family, and a chunky guy in a read suit. But, having Thanksgiving before Christmas gets our hearts into and attitude of gratitude (sorry for the rhyming) for all that Christ has done for us.
I also believe that if we can sing with Thanksgiving in our hearts then we can fight off strife and testing, which let’s be honest, we have seen our share of this year. If 2020 was supposed to bring clearer focus, I would say that it’s done that. It has shown us what’s important to us. It’s shown us what we take for granted, and what we miss when it’s gone. I believe it has shown us just how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for, even if we can’t always see it.
So, today, my prayer for all of us is to get our hearts into a place of Thanksgiving for all the blessings we have seen over the past year, and beyond, so that we can hear the voice of the Lord when he speaks to us. Because he is the rock of our salvation and we are his people. It reminds me of a song… 😊
“The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock,
And let the God of our salvation be exalted!”
Happy Thanksgiving!
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