Is Giving Thanks To God So Important?

Why Give Thanks To God And Appoint A Day Of Thanksgiving?

Question: Is giving thanks to God so important? Why give thanks to God and appoint a day of thanksgiving?

Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!

The story of thanksgiving started like this, In the year 1620, a little ship came to America. It was called the Mayflower. There were two hundred people on the ship. The people were called Pilgrims. They came from England seeking to practice their faith freely in liberty. The Pilgrims wanted to have their own church. They could not have their own church in England.The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority [of the Church of England] and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were … imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their [heresy]. A group of separatists” people who wanted no part of that in England “first fled to Holland and established a community.

“After eleven years,” in Holland, “about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to” what was then called “the New World, where they would certainly face hardships,” and experiences that none of them could foresee. But to them it was worth the try, because for them the objective was to “live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences,” their beliefs and their desires. “On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail.

“It carried a total of 102 passengers,” not all of them Pilgrims, “including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract,” for all the Pilgrims to agree to and sign, “that established just and equal laws for all [forty Pilgrims] of the new community…” It didn’t matter what their religious beliefs were. None of that mattered. They just set up a contractual agreement that dictated behavior and a number of other things. Now, where did the revolutionary ideas… come from to establish greatness that set apart America from all other nation of the world?

The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the” Bible, both “Old and New Testaments.” It was the reason they lived: To read it, to study it, to practice it. “They looked to the ancient Israelite's for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture,” this is all according to Bradford’s journal, “they never doubted that their experiment would work.” They were supremely confident that their objective would occur.

The first winter in America was very cold. The Pilgrims did not have much food. They did not have warm clothes. The Pilgrims got sick. Many Pilgrims died. It was a terrible time. In the spring, Indians came to visit. They were friendly. Two Indians could speak English!

The Indians showed the Pilgrims how to plant corn. The Pilgrims worked hard. They cut down trees. They built houses. They learned to hunt the turkeys that lived in the woods.

When fall came, the Pilgrims were very happy because they had a lot of foods for the winter. They made a big dinner. They invited the Indians to come and eat with them. The Indians brought deer for the dinner.

They cooked outside. They ate and ate for three days. The Pilgrims were thankful for the good things they had. This was the first Thanksgiving in America.

A people who had undying faith in God survived circumstances that they never knew they were going to face and ultimately prospered — and, at the end of it all, were still able to practice their religion as they chose who was the original reason for their trip in the first place. And for all of that they were eternally thankful. That is the story of Thanksgiving.

So we know from the above story, that the first Thanksgiving was something that came in to existence as a gratitude towards God for his daily sustenance that He provided and for His sovereign hand of protection in their day to day lives through out the time of their hardship they faced in the New World to establish it in the Biblical values of faith and freedom which they did by the Grace of God.


Giving thanks to God is very important because,

1) God created us to be thankful for everything He has given, if we fail to be thankful to Him we will spiritually get darkened in our heart without God's eternal light (Rom 1:21).

2) God wants us to give thanks in all circumstances as this is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus, because He deserves all our praise, honor and glory as the Creator of all things (1 Thess 5:18; Rev 5:12).

3) Thankfulness through tithe or harvest festival day brings spiritual favor of God and shows that we fear God to the angels as well as to our fellow humans (Deut 14:23).

4) If we are not thankful for what God has already given physically, we cannot expect more of what is in store for us spiritually by God, who will only give to a thankful and grateful persons that which belongs to them as a gift and a reward for eternity (Luke 16:11-12; Rev 3:11).

5) To be thankful for all things to God, teaches us that we are dependent on God and that we should look to Him for eternal life (Luke 17:11-19).

6) Thankful heart receives not only natural things, but learn to tap in to knowing the supernatural love of God through faith which is too big to understand without the revelation of it from God (Psa 107:1; Eph 3:16-21).

7) Only when we make prayers with a thankful heart, we can avoid anxiety through knowing from within by faith that our prayers are heard and will be answered shortly (Php 4:6-7).

We must give thanks to God out of gratefulness, rather than as a routine. May the Lord help us to not only to be thankful to Him on thanksgiving day but make a day of thanksgiving everyday day of our life on earth, so that we might experience heaven on earth for the Glory of God through His abiding Presence!

Much Blessings....

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