How to Share Your Faith Using Thanksgiving
Loads of images come flooding in when you hear the word Thanksgiving. What does the word trigger in your mind? Turkey. Back-to-back football games on TV. A break from school. Pumpkin pie. Shopping. Family squabbles. Fun and games. Oddly enough, sometimes the whole 'giving thanks' part of the day can get lost in all the flurry and fuss. Unless we're careful, Thanksgiving can easily miss the original intent of the holiday - to gather with others and give thanks to God!
What makes for a thankful heart? Does it overflow from having an abundance of the coolest technology, clothes, or car? Does it come from having a warm house to live in? From being popular? From having a positive cash flow? Or a boyfriend or girlfriend to make you feel special and loved?
Frequently, our minds go down those roads when we collect our thoughts to focus on what we're thankful to God for. But as followers of Jesus, we should look to him as our model for thankfulness. And Jesus didn't have an abundance of 'stuff' in his life, or a nice house, a steady income, or a girlfriend. Yet he lived a life of gratitude and thankfulness. Check out these examples from the Bible:
When Jesus fed the 5000, he only distributed the bread to the crowd after "he had given thanks" (Matthew 15:36).
At the Last Supper, the night before Jesus would face a painful death on the cross, Jesus "gave thanks" before he shared the bread and the cup (Luke 22:17, 19).
Or consider the Apostle Paul, locked up in a Roman prison, unjustly accused, doing time for sharing the Good News with others, facing brutal treatment and harsh conditions. Yet he wrote from his prison cell,
"Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:19-20).
A truly grateful heart doesn't flow out of the circumstances of our lives. It flows out of a deep, strong, personal relationship with the Lord of Heaven and Earth - the kind of relationship the rest of the world needs to know about!
So use the Thanksgiving clamor and commotion to point your conversations with friends or family toward God. Try turning their attention from the turkey and football to the real cause for celebration and feasting - the love, grace and forgiveness found in a restored relationship with God through his son Jesus. Here are some ideas to get the conversation headed toward God-talk:
- Do you have any family traditions at Thanksgiving time? Is Thanksgiving a time of fun or stress in your family?
- If you could 'do Thanksgiving' in a fresh, new, totally different way, what would that look like for you? Would it include a God-focus? Why or why not?
- What's the one thing you are most thankful for this year?
- Ask your friends if they see Thanksgiving as more of a time for being thankful to God or being thankful to others? Share your perspective. Tell your friends about the difference God has made in your life through accepting Jesus' gift of salvation and how that has made you thankful.
- Find out if there's something in your friend's life that makes it tough to feel thankful this Thanksgiving. Listen and share from your own life if you've had challenges this past year as well. Share how you try to come to God with a thankful heart, regardless of your earthly circumstances, because of his free gift of forgiveness through Jesus and your restored relationship with God.
There's an old proverb that says, "Who does not thank for little, will not thank for much." So strive to thank God in the midst of both the joys and the tough stuff of life, and share his free gift of salvation with those around you.
And enjoy the turkey.
