The rancorous election season has probably not ended even though the national elections have taken place. The politicians have stirred up the muck on whatever side of the political divide you can imagine, and it will likely take some time for the murky mess to begin to settle. Each political side will be declaring that the election was not fair depending upon which side of the outcome they find themselves. The loser will voice their objections of the voting process, and the winner will declare their approval of the results saying, “The people have spoken.” The problem is that the whole process was inoculated with a divisive spirit in which distrust was injected. Division escalated by inflamed speech and rancorous words seemed designed to attack, accuse, and alienate one another’s platform and political party. In this environment there was often more heat than light in public discourse.
What was the cause of such nastiness? By now the political strategists
and media manipulators are waxing eloquent with their insights for all this turmoil.
They are at best offering opinions and at worst supplying accelerants to ignite
further agitation that may generate more headline news which they can report.
Some have decided to appeal to God to sort out the political, spiritual,
economic, and moral mess the nation is in. This is not a bad idea. However, those
same people may wonder what right they have to turn to God now when they rarely
appeal to Him at any other time. While not endorsing all the words of a country
singer, Jelly Roll’s, song, he observes, “I only talk to God when I need a
favor, And I only pray when I ain't got a prayer.” Then he asks, “… who am I to
expect a savior, … oh, If I only talk to God when I need a favor? But, God, I
need a favor.” Specifically, he is praying and asking God that he not lose a
girlfriend. People around us may be praying that we do not lose a nation.
How did we get into such a state? Perhaps the 1863 Thanksgiving
proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln gives us a hint. He wanted to establish
the last Thursday in November as a national holiday. Remember, this occurred
during the 3rd year of the Civil War. A war in our nation where a
half million died – one out of 20 American males over the age of 14 perished in
battle or the ravages of war.
In the proclamation Lincoln wrote, “The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God...”
Months earlier Lincoln had issued a warning on March 30, 1863, when he
had issued a Day of Fasting and Prayer: “The awful calamity of civil war... may
be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful
end of our national reformation as a whole people... We have forgotten God...
We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated
with unbroken success, we have become... too proud to pray to the God that made
us! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to
confess our national sins.” Among the national sins was presumption, pride, and
a perspective that dismissed God from the nation’s consciousness and dependence.
Lincoln ended his first Thanksgiving proclamation writing, “No human
counsel hath devised [these blessings], nor hath any mortal hand worked out
these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they
should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart
and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the United States… to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
In this season it would be well for us to look up to God and see the
blessings God has showered upon us in the midst of the storms of international wars,
natural disasters, personal tragedies, social turmoils, moral upheavals, emotional
anxieties, family crises, financial stresses, and the immense pressures of
daily living. That kind of perspective can alter even our view in the worst of
our circumstances and release us to give thanksgiving to God from whom all
blessings flow.
It Acts 16:20-25 two men, Paul and Silas, were falsely accused, fiercely
abused, and chained in a prison. What comes out of their mouths? Praise!
Prayer! How could this occur? Other prisoners could not see God in these two
men’s circumstances, but they could see God in the men as they gave thanksgiving
and praise to God. Paul and Silas had not forgotten God and they knew God had
not forgotten them. Paul was practicing what he preached.
He wrote to a church, “Always be
joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's
will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1Thess. 5:16-18 NLT). As
Thanksgiving approaches, don’t forget God in your thanksgiving. It may
dramatically alter your perspectives and the way you face the challenges in
life!
