Yesterday was Thanksgiving and a lot of attention was given to a bird–a dead turkey! Well, this is a new day and I want to call your attention to another bird–the mighty eagle. I just happened to read the following words in Turning Point magizine. Here’s some food for thought—

After watching the bald eagle in flight, some people are surprised to learn that Thomas Jefferson wanted to make the wild turkey the American national bird. While turkeys are beautiful in their own way, they cannot soar like the eagle. It is the eagle’s seven-foot wingspan and 7,000 lightweight (featherweight) feathers that allow it to rise thousands of feet into the air with seemingly no effort.

It is not the eagle’s ability to fly that takes it higher and higher but its ability to capture the rising thermal updrafts under its outstretched wings. The prophet Isaiah must have watched eagles soar over Israel since he used them as an illustration of the one who waits (hopes) on the Lord. It is not our strength that will carry us higher and farther, but the Lord’s. Our responsibility is to spread our wings of faith and let His strength take us where we could never go on our own. If you are falling, failing, or feeling weak, exercise your hope in the Lord; and allow His strength to lift you up.

Soaring by faith means setting your sights on heights you could never reach without God’s help.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”–1 Thess.5:18

Someone said,” The foundation of gratitude is the expectation of nothing”. Well, I believe there is a better way to look at it. As a child of God I do expect some things–the Bible teaches us to do so.As we yield ourselves to God’s will we can expect that He will supply all our needs (Matthew 6:33).We should expect that, and we should be thankful for it. There’s nothing wrong with expecting God to keep His promise—there is something wrong if we don’t. God is honored when we trust Him.

The best way to develop a grateful heart is to realize that we don’t deserve anything–we really don’t! Think about it this way—Those who don’t deserve anything should be thankful for everything. That way our gratitude is rooted and grounded in grace. How can we not be grateful when we realize that everything we have is the result of God’s grace? No one is earning their way with God–nobody! “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father–“(James 1:17).

As long as we think we deserve more, bigger, and better we will fail to be grateful. When we understand that we are just sinners saved by grace, deserving of hell, it is much easier to accept what God allows and to appreciate what God provides. Although we are totally undeserving, we are joint-heirs with Christ.Be thankful!

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.–Ephesians 5:20

William Bradford was the first governor of Plymouth Colony. He journeyed to the new world on the Mayflower, endured the harsh winter with little food, and banded the people together to thank God for His blessings after their first harvest. Here is his proclamation to the people of Plymouth:

To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

Bradford realized that the crops, meat, and protection from disease wasn’t a result of their own doing. It was a blessing from God Almighty. Though they had been through difficult times, God had spared them and blessed them with provision.

Sometimes we can be blinded to God’s blessing in our lives. We have become so accustomed to modern conveniences, new technology, and provisions that we feel we deserve them-they are our right. But truth be told, we deserve nothing more than eternal punishment for the sins we commit. Nothing we have has been deserved.

God has blessed us in ways we can’t even begin to understand. Compare your life to those of the colonists. You have a roof over your head; many of them did not that first winter. You have food whenever you desire it; many of them died of starvation. You have a doctor, hospital, and medical care if you get sick; many of them died of disease and plague. You have transportation; many of them walked miles to find food/shelter. Yet the colonists took time to thank God for His blessings of life, freedom, and provision.

However you spend Thanksgiving Day, one activity should be common among all of us. We should all take time to give God thanks for all He’s done.—- God has so mightily blessed us beyond what we deserve. Thank Him for it today.

As you cook dinner, relax, or spend time with family, don’t forget to take time to thank God. Thank Him for the food you eat, the comfort you enjoy, and the family you love. Thank Him for the salvation you possess. Thank Him that no matter what enters your life, He is by your side. (From Daily in the Word).

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. –2 Corinthians 5:17

Do you find it difficult to be truly thankful? Consider Jesus and the difference He makes. There’s an old song that says, “I’m not the man I used to be”. That’s true of every Christian! We’ve been changed. Don’t misunderstand–we aren’t saved because we change, that’s reformation. We are changed because we are saved, that’s regeneration.

As Thanksgiving approaches think about where you would be without Christ and where you are because of Him. That’s an iron-clad, sure-fire guarantee that you will be both joyful and thankful. Here’s some words from the pen of Paul Tripp that you should find helpful:

“Because Christ lived perfectly, died sufficiently, and rose victoriously, you and I can come out of hiding. We are free to own up to, without fear, the darkest of our thoughts and motives, the ugliest of our words, our most selfish choices, and our most rebellious and unloving actions. We are freed from our bondage to guilt and shame. We are freed from hiding behind accusation, blame, recrimination, and rationalization.

Confession is powerful and effective. It turns guilt into forgiveness. It turns regret into hope. It turns slavery into freedom. It turns you from mourning over your harvest to planting new seeds of faith, repentance, and hope. You see, you are not trapped! Things are not hopeless! The Lord, the great Creator and Savior, is the God who never changes, but at the same time he is the God who promises and produces deep personal change. The changes he makes in us are so foundational that the Bible’s best words describing them are ‘new creation.’ God’s plan is to change us so fundamentally that it is as if we are longer us; something brand new has been created!”

As a new Christian one of the first books I read, and still my favorite, was the story of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma. Now, just this morning my heart was moved to tears as I read this brief article by Stephen Davey:

Sometimes it takes more faith to believe that God is in control of your own personal life than it takes to believe that He is in control of the whole world. —–

On one occasion Judson was falsely accused of being an English spy. As a result, he endured a cruel imprisonment by the Burmese government. His wife, Anne, faithfully and courageously attempted to have him released through every possible channel, but to no avail.

His prison cell was so tiny that he was forced to stand, while the cells of others allowed room to lie down to sleep. The sun was unbearably hot at times; prisoners were never allowed to bathe; pain filled every fiber of his body as he was tortured day after day. His only respite from the agony of his incarceration was a visit from Anne. In those brief but wonderful moments, she would encourage him with the same message, “Hang on, Adoniram, God will give us the victory.”

Week after tortuous week, Anne came and encouraged him, delivering the same words, “God will give us the victory.” After many months, Adoniram was unexpectedly released and assigned the task of interpreter for affairs between the English and Burmese. Because of this new duty, he was still separated from Anne. Sadly, during his time of absence, Anne became deathly ill.

Months passed and Judson was finally allowed to return home a free man. Body broken and weak, he approached the place he once called home. As he slowly limped toward the door, he saw a child sitting in the dirt. The little girl was so covered with filth that he failed, at first, to recognize her as his own daughter. He went into their simple hut, squinting in the darkness, and gasped as he saw the emaciated form of his wife lying on a cot, weakened by disease. Tears coursing down his cheeks, he hugged his daughter close to him and knelt beside the cot.  Anne looked up at him and with her last breath, smiled and whispered the words, “Adoniram, God will give us the victory.”

If you were to be able somehow to interview the Judsons today, they would no longer be saying, “God will give us the victory”; instead, they would joyfully deliver the news, “God has given us the victory!”

Be encouraged, my friend. No matter what you’re going through right now, your life is in God’s hands. Hold fast to your faith as Anne and Adoniram did, even in the face of squalor and disease, deprivation and disappointment, heartache and loss.

Your reward in the end is everlasting, and the celebration of final victory is . . . just ahead!

Pray right now that God will give you the kind of faith that Adoniram and Anne Judson exercised, even in the face of persecution. Then, thank God for giving you victory over sin, death, and the world, through Christ’s perfect life, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection.