Thanksgiving images show tables groaning under their burden of food, surrounded by a happy throng of family members from multiple generations. The emphasis seems to be prosperity, family and tradition.
Should we not be thankful for prosperity and family?
Of course we should be thankful! But I think we tend to focus on the prosperity and family and tradition, while leaving Christ at the extreme fringe of our consciousness. We are thankful to God, but we are focused on the stuff. We give a nod to God, but it is the anticipation of the food and family and traditional activities that really makes our hearts race.
This is just another example of idolatry. We give the Lord a minute before the feast, but our hearts belong to the food, the fellowship and the fun.
Put Christ in His rightful place in your affections! Be thankful! Be joyful! Rejoice and praise the Lord - not because He has loaded you with good things, but because HE IS WORTHY of all our praise! Give Him glory and honor! Praise God that He is your Savior and Lord! Praise Him that your life does not consist of the stuff this world offers. Praise God that if you were suddenly bereft of your loved ones and had no home or food, you would still be rich in Christ.
In Jesus Christ we are rich regardless of the prosperity we experience in this sinful world.
I plan to have a GREAT time enjoying my family (especially my sweet grand-babies) and all of the food and fun over Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful for them all. God has graciously provided good things for me and my dear ones. But while I enjoy God's blessings, may I never allow those blessings displace God from His rightful throne at the center of my affections.
(Philippians 3:7-8) ¶ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
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