“O, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endures forever” is the way many of us learned to return thanks after a good meal. Based on a common refrain in the book of Psalms (106, 107, 118, 136), that was the after meal prayer used in my home as I was growing up.
Giving thanks is something that we are encouraged to do on this National Day of Thanksgiving in our country. It is good that we join with millions of others on this day to give thanks to our God for all His blessing on us and our nation.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High. (Psalm 92:1 NASB)
While a national holiday can be a good reminder to give thanks, Jesus instructs us that this should be our attitude every day. That is why He included a petition in the prayer He taught us saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Writing about this petition in his Small Catechism, Dr. Martin Luther explained it this way: “God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”
Luther went on to explain what is meant by “daily bread” with these words: “Daily bread includes everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”
It is good for us to pause more than occasionally in our busy lives and reflect on what we are really saying when we pray those simple words, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
God is the giver of all our blessings, more than we can enumerate. And we are all God’s stewards or managers who daily receive these blessings from His gracious hand. The greatest blessing we have received is the gift of salvation through faith in His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. But God does not stop there. He knows that we also have physical needs and so He provides for them, and He provides lavishly.
What is our appropriate response? Simply put it is to receive God’s gifts with thanksgiving and use them as He intends. We do well to remember that Christian stewardship is the free and joyous activity of anaging all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes.
May this National Day of Thanksgiving be a reminder to be thankful for all the blessings God gives and to use them all in a way that honors Him and blesses those around us.
