God Call

¹ Give thanks to Yahweh, call on His name;
proclaim His deeds among the peoples.
² Sing to Him, sing praise to Him;
tell about all His wonderful works!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love this time of year. I love the cooler temperatures, pumpkin spice coffee, eggnog, turkey, football, fall colors, etc. It is a time that we traditionally ask ourselves what we are thankful for, and I am thankful for a whole lot. I am thankful for my family, my health, my job, etc. I know that as Christians we are all incredibly thankful for Jesus. We believe that without him, there is nothing to be thankful for and no one to thank. He is our All in all.

Most people just let “being thankful” be an end unto itself, though. Look at the passage of scripture that I put above. As Christians, our thankfulness has an appropriate response. Too often we feel thankfulness in our hearts or post our thankfulness on Facebook, but that is all we do with it. The Bible teaches that as a thankful people we should respond out of our thankfulness to tell other people about God. For believers, the holiday of Thanksgiving should be a motivator to get out and share the Good News of Jesus, but, sadly, the holiday usually becomes a time when we shut down for the Christmas season and indulge in our own selfish traditions never thinking about missions at all.

Let’s make this year different! Instead of just saying thanks to God, let’s prove that we are thankful for his grace by “proclaiming His deeds among the peoples.” How might this flesh itself out? Well…

• Go shopping on Black Friday, but intentionally look for ways to be a witness during that hectic day.
• Participate in the mission opportunities at your church. We just had our Thanksgiving Blessing where we gave out 1200 turkey dinners and saw 69 people saved and baptized.
• Participate in your church’s mission offering. In our church, the month of December marks our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in which every penny goes to fund our 5000+ missionaries on the field.
• Get your children involved in a mission project. Too often children just get stuff and never give, and we wonder why they are growing up selfish and moving away from God.
• Don’t forget the missionaries that your church is partnered with. Send them a Christmas card to encourage them or at least an email. All of them will be spending Christmas away from their families and could use a little encouragement.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!