Thanksgiving and Calling of the President

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Leadership in a Day of Giving Thanks For God's Many Blessings

Howdy!

Today for our next stop on the DPW train we will be moving from fasting to thanksgiving. Ironic of course if you are from North America. Yet in God’s providence it is good to always think of breaking a fast (breakfast) with a glorious feast in the presence of the Almighty. We serve a Lord who wants us to be joyous and full of glory in the good things He has done. Our own holiday called Thanksgiving was meant, and still should be seen as, a time of national positive prayer for the blessings of Jehovah upon this country. In my own family history it has long been the practice for us to each take a moment before we eat to say something more than just “family” that we are thankful that the Lord has done in the past year. It’s good to take stock of God’s mercies, especially those which are ordinary and extraordinary.

For the purposes of the directory for public worship it is the latter kinds of providences that this chapter has in mind. For the writers of the DPW fresh on their mind would have been events like the defeat of the Spanish Armada or the extinguishing of the gunpowder plot. These works of mercy that they understood God to have provided gave them peace and comfort. However, another matter that would soon be on their agenda for a day of thanksgiving was the horrible London fire of 1666. Now, we have to ask the question why would they be holding a solemn day of thanksgiving after a horrendous destructive moment like that? Simply put because when we come together to praise God it is not so that we can say in a kind of morose fatalistic way, “well it could have been worse”, but so that in the midst of the pain and anguish we can thank Him for His protection, and for His faithfulness despite the destruction and death for we are those who mourn not as the world mourns. We who rest in God do so because He is sovereign over all.

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