In Every Thing | 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I’m not going to keep you long tonight. But I do want to give you a few thoughts that are closely connected with the holiday.

With Thursday being Thanksgiving, I thought it would be interesting to understand some of the history. As I did some research, one stark reality captured my attention.

The First Thanksgiving

I remember drawing a picture of the first Thanksgiving as a kid and entering it into an art contest in my school.

My memory of that picture is smiling Pilgrims sitting next to happy Native Americans eating a feast of Turkey, and Mac & Cheese and Pumpkin Pie with extra Cool Whip, which is the best way to eat Pumpkin Pie, by the way.

But that First Thanksgiving was not as pleasant as my drawing implied. We don’t know a lot about it, but there is a letter from an English settler named Edward Winslow that never mentions the word “Thanksgiving,” but describes a weeklong harvest that was highlighted by a three-day celebration with 90 Wampanoag (wampanog) men and their Chief Massasoit to rejoice together in the bounty.

That celebration in Plymouth may or may not have included turkeys. More likely geese or ducks. It probably would have included some deer and even local seafood found in the nearby cape. Plus fruits from the harvest, which likely does mean pumpkins, although probably not in the form of a pie with Cool Whip.

The biggest tragedy may be the fact that there were no mashed potatoes. Potatoes weren’t a thing in North America yet, which seems almost unconstitutional.

But the English and the Wampanoag people celebrated together for a few days, both because of the harvest but also because those remaining settlers had survived a whole in the New World.

The First Winter had been terrible. They stayed on the ship to protect them from exposure, but disease spread in those close quarters and then the food ran out. Only about half of the settlers survived to see the Spring.

When the weather became warmer, they moved onto land and met the first Native Americans, one of which was Squanto, who had been a slave and spent time in London. He helped them transition into farming.

They planted crops and began to establish their homes on shore. Once the corn was harvested in the fall, that’s when William Bradford prepared the feast and invited the Wampanoag people to participate.

But what I’d like to notice is that first Thanksgiving was amplified by the difficulties.

They were not thankful because things were easy. They were thankful because God was good even though it was hard.

So Thanksgiving was an unofficial holiday until George Washington issued a proclamation in 1789 making Thursday, November 26 a Day of Public Thanksgiving. It was the first time it was celebrated under the new Constitution. His purpose was to recognize the role of God’s providence in creating the new United States and her constitution. He also declared that the day was to celebrate God’s care for the American people during the Revolutionary War.

So notice. George Washington’s mindset for Thanksgiving was not because life had been easy. It’s because God had been good even though it had been hard.

Still, it wasn’t official. Washington didn’t declare it to be an annual Holiday. It was just that one Thursday, November 26, 1789.

So other presidents issued Thanksgiving days sporadically until President Abraham Lincoln came along.

He’s the one that made it official. But it wasn’t without controversy. To many, it actually seemed absurd.

Because the year was 1863. Our great nation was in the middle of a Civil War with brother shooting at brother. Neighbor pitted against neighbor. Hundreds of thousands had been killed. Widows and orphans had been created.

But it was during this time of bitter fighting that President Lincoln urged the nation to give thanks. Of all things

I’m going to read his proclamation and it’s not easy wording, but do your best to follow along.

This was on October 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War.

By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, 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, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

This was in 1863. The Civil War began in 1861 and ended in 1865.

So right in the middle of the Civil War, gratitude was on Abraham Lincoln’s mind.

Notice, Lincoln didn’t declare Thanksgiving when things were easy. He declared a Thanksgiving holiday, not because things were easy. But because God had been good even though things were as hard as they could be.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

It’s not saying, “Be thankful for everything.”

There are some things we can’t honestly be thankful for. I know that sounds heretical. Hear me out.

Should we be thankful for sin?

Should we be thankful for loss?

Should we be thankful for tragedy?

Should we be thankful for difficulty?

I don’t know about you, but that’s hard for me.

But notice Paul doesn’t say, “For every thing give thanks.”

He says, “In every thing give thanks.”

Meaning, you may not be thankful for what you’re facing. But you can still be thankful that you have a good Father who loves you and has your best at heart and will provide for you even when it’s hard.

And Paul implies something here that I believe we see with the Thanksgiving Holiday. That the moments of hardship make gratitude even sweeter. Because we likely wouldn’t be as grateful for our Father if everything was always easy.

In other words, the hardships of life should amplify our gratitude because we know how hard things can be, yet we have a Father who still loves and provides for us. The gracious gifts of the most High God.

Though we may not directly thank Him for the trial, we can be thankful for Him in the trial.

A man named Dan Burgess wrote a song in the 1970’s called “I Thank You Lord.” Someone here may have sung it, but it captures tonight’s truth so well:

1. Thank you, Lord, for the trials that comes my way. In that way I can grow each day as I let you lead, And I thank you, Lord, for the patience those trials bring. In that process of growing, I can learn to care.

CHORUS: But it goes against the way I am To put my human nature down And let the Spirit take control of all I do. 'Cause when those trials come, My human nature shouts the thing to do; And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored.

2. And I thank you, Lord, with each trial I feel inside, That you're there to help, lead and guide me away from wrong. 'Cause you promised, Lord, that with every testing, That your way of escaping is easier to bear.

CHORUS: But it goes against the way I am To put my human nature down And let the Spirit take control of all I do. 'Cause when those trials come, My human nature shouts the thing to do; And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored.

3. And I thank you, Lord, for the victory that growing brings. In surrender of everything life is so worth while. And I thank you, Lord, that when everything's put in place, Out in front I can see your face, and it's there you belong.

It is easy to become so aware of the affliction that we forget God’s provision.

Be a thankful Believer. “In every give thanks” is a Bible command.

It doesn’t mean you don’t feel the affliction.

But it does mean that in the affliction your focus is on your Father’s provision.

How to give thanks in every thing:

1. Plan

2. Write

3. Read

4. Sing

Don't be so focused on the affliction that you lose sight of the provision.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”