“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.” (Psalm 103:2, NLT)
My wife and I loved our time in the USA when we were attending Dallas Theological Seminary. In the month of November, there was one particular custom that we were privileged to experience. We fell in love with it! I wish we had it in our home country of Romania, too!
Every year, towards the end of November, we were invited by an American family to have a very special meal in their home. Family and friends joined around the bountiful table for a time of fellowship, joyful conversations, and… thanksgiving. As much as I enjoyed the delicious foods that were served, particularly the roast turkey and the pumpkin pie, what I loved the most was the reason for the entire celebration—to give thanks to the Lord for His many blessings!
This November is very different from many others in our lives. There’s much distress caused by a worldwide pandemic. Much turmoil and uncertainty! As I am writing this, there are only eleven days left till the presidential elections in the USA. We have been following them closely and praying all the way from Bucharest because they truly are historic. What happens in the US influences the whole world! None of us know the future, either related to politics or pandemics.
Nevertheless, we can still be thankful because our gratitude is grounded in the only One who does know the future, and every single detail regarding our present circumstances. The One who is in absolute control over all things, including pandemics, politics, or any other problems we might face. The Lord our God is still on the throne! He is still all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving… all-sufficient!
Our thanksgiving is rooted in His character, not in our circumstances. Our gratitude is rooted in our faith, not in our fears. And our faith is strengthened by the Lord’s presence with us in the present, His promises for the future, and His many blessings in the past. May we never forget all the good things He has done for us!
Here’s a neat illustration I came across. A certain Persian king was elevated from a poverty-stricken home to the glory of a royal throne. After he became king he sent his servants to the old shack where he was reared, with orders to gather every relic of those days. They brought fragments of his home: many broken toys, his patched shirt, a crude wooden bowl from which he ate, and numerous worthless mementos of his childhood. All these he arranged in a special room of his palace, and each day he spent one whole hour sitting among the memories of his humble past. On the wall hung a prayer: “Lest I Forget.”
The more we remember the Lord’s blessings, the more thankful we’ll be! Our faith will be strengthened and our praises will increase. “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
