Monday: Prosperous and Ungrateful

(Click here to watch this video: https://youtu.be/82TwLpKusaI)

*****

Each day this week I wanted to record a short meditation as we prepare for our national celebration of Thanksgiving. Today I want to read a short passage from Deuteronomy and then briefly reflect on what it means to us today.

Deuteronomy 8:7-18 includes a caution from Moses as the people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Moses reminds the people that God is giving them a great gift. A land to call home, a land that is rich with resources, and a place where they could build families and increase in numbers and in wealth. But Moses also warns them that when they become prosperous and wealthy, they risk losing everything by forgetting that it was God who gave it to them. They run the risk of arrogance and deceiving themselves into believing that they were personally responsible for their wealth and their prosperity and in so doing, forget that it was God.

As we celebrate and give thanks this week, let us not fall into the trap that Moses warned us about. We give thanks for what we have, we give thanks for our prosperity and our wealth, but we must never forget we didn’t do it all by ourselves. We give thanks for what we have because it was God that gave us the ability to do it.

Tuesday: Joyful and Forgetful

(Click here to watch this video: https://youtu.be/_31XUwmwYa0)

*****

Today’s meditation comes from Luke 17:11-19 and remembers the time when Jesus met ten men who were cast out from society because they were afflicted with leprosy. Check this out, because most of us don’t have a disease that removes us from society, there is still an important word for us to consider as we prepare for Thanksgiving.

¹¹ Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

These men knew that Jesus was coming, and they called to him from a distance, as the law required, because of their leprosy. But, after they were healed, only one of the ten came back to say thank you. We are also told that the one who said thank you, was a Samaritan, a people who were despised by the Jews and that feeling was mutual. Nonetheless, he came back to give thanks for the incredible gift that he had received.

If we are charitable, we could say that the other nine were so filled with joy that they rushed to rejoin their families and return to a normal life and simply “forgot” to give thanks. But even when we consider that charitably, these nine men appear to be, and act as if, they are ungrateful.

As we celebrate and give thanks this week for the things that God has given to us, let us not be so joyful that we forget to give thanks to the one who is responsible for what we have been given.

---

Wednesday: The Blessing of Generosity

(Click here to watch this video: https://youtu.be/56D4XZztPdg)

*****

Today’s meditation comes from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, found in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Paul wants the church to know that true gratitude can be found in generosity. Listen to Paul’s words:

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹² This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴ And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Paul says that in God’s system of mathematics, God will be stingy with stingy people and generous with generous people simply because he desires that he be repaid in praise and thanksgiving for his generosity to us. But this isn’t some sort of prosperity gospel where God promises to make you rich. Instead, God says that your generosity is a demonstration of your faithfulness and so, by being generous, God will bless you “in every way.” Yes, that might mean some sort of financial wealth, but it might also mean physical or mental health, family, friends, resilience, courage, strength, love, compassion, faith, peace, hope, or any other sort of blessing that God might choose. But whatever form it takes, Paul says that the purpose of God’s blessing is so that you can be generous with whatever it is that God has given you in abundance.

We aren’t meant to hoard the blessings and gifts of God but to allow our abundance to overflow into the lives of the people around us. And, by sharing God’s gifts with others, they will also give thanks and praise to God.

This week, as we set aside a day to give thanks, let us remember that it’s supposed to be a two-step process. Give thanks for whatever it is that God has given to you, and then pass your blessing on to the people around you.

---

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day

King David’s Prayer

(Click here to watch this video: https://youtu.be/_PKDvwwmyFE)

*****

Since today is Thanksgiving Day, I just want to share with you this prayer of thanks from King David found in Psalm 65:

¹ Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion;
    to you our vows will be fulfilled.
² You who answer prayer,
    to you all people will come.
³ When we were overwhelmed by sins,
    you forgave our transgressions.
⁴ Blessed are those you choose
    and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
    of your holy temple.

⁵ You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
    God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas,
⁶ who formed the mountains by your power,
    having armed yourself with strength,
⁷ who stilled the roaring of the seas,
    the roaring of their waves,
    and the turmoil of the nations.
⁸ The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy.

⁹ You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it.
¹⁰ You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.
¹² The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
    the hills are clothed with gladness.
¹³ The meadows are covered with flocks
    and the valleys are mantled with grain;
    they shout for joy and sing.

David’s words, simply say, “Since we are blessed, then we must give thanks to God.”

That’s good advice.