Don’t forget – give thanks!
By Paul Bawden
With all the negative that’s happening in the USA and the world, it’s easy to think, “Why give thanks?”
Regardless, Thanksgiving Day is coming in America on Thursday, November 27, 2025. Thanksgiving Day was declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It wasn’t, though, until 1941 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a congressional resolution making Thanksgiving officially the fourth Thursday in November.
On Thanksgiving Day, what should we be doing? Certainly, there will be the gathering of family and friends for a time of food and fellowship. Others may be by themselves or shut in. Various communities will provide a meal for these and those less fortunate. Churches or religious organizations will also be involved. I know in one of the churches we pastored, we would get certain names of those in need, and we would provide food they could cook for Thanksgiving.
But is Thanksgiving Day just a time to get together with family and friends, and provide for those by themselves, less fortunate, and shut-in? For some the Day may be just that.
However, a further thought should cause us to think about the word, thanksgiving. For the giving of thanks means that there is a source from which one receives. Sometimes it can mean being thankful to someone for who that person is, an act of kindness, or a personal gift of some kind. That is more humanitarian thankfulness, which is certainly the right response to have.
But is there a greater source of what we have than just us humans? Is there someone who is the giver of all we have, who is eternal, personal, and the Source from whom all blessings flow? (cf. James 1:17). I know of only One – the biblical God. I realize some would not agree with this, and say humanitarian thankfulness is all that’s involved in thanksgiving. If such is true, this life is all there is, and that’s an absurd and hopeless way to live.
But recognizing that the biblical God is the source of all one has, opens up the reality that one is not depended upon one’s self, who is here today and gone tomorrow, but an individual can depend on the eternal One who promises him forgiveness and eternal life through the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
Recognizing Him as one’s Savior, believing in Him, and following Him, the believer realizes He is the Source of all that he has, and He alone is worthy of thankfulness on Thanksgiving Day and every day of the year. I think of the thousands of college students, on different campuses around the USA, who have and are responding to Jesus as their personal Savior. They are discovering that Jesus is their spiritual Source of forgiveness and eternal life, and the Source of their physical well- being and possessions as well, ultimately worthy of their thanks.
As you gather on Thanksgiving Day, I trust you know personally the Savior, and will give Him thanks that He is your Savior, your Sovereign, your Sustainer, and your Supplier. Take time to count your blessings, even in your challenges, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done! Don’t forget! Give thanks! Happy Thanksgiving!!
Paul Bawden is married and served in the full-time pastoral ministry for 45 years, retiring in 2011, after which he and his wife served in four interims, three in Wisconsin and one in Iowa. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Speech and attended Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Theology. He has taken counseling courses at Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. Paul is a lifetime member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, as well as being a member of Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM), which serves churches during their time of transition in searching for a new pastor. He is also a volunteer writer for GotQuestions.org. Paul likes to write, read, and work in the yard. The Bawdens have had the privilege to travel to Mexico and Romania on mission trips and visited various countries in Europe. They have three daughters and five grandchildren.
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