Current culture would have us believe that Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, unrelated to religion.

NOT. Thanksgiving has its historical roots in centuries old traditions of giving thanks and praising God for bountiful blessings from His provision.

The American observance existed prior to the nation’s founding. It was strengthened on October 3, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Consider these excerpts from the document:

“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings for 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 so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensitive to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

“I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Giving thanks and glory to God is a theme throughout the Bible. Here is one psalm that does just that.

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to Him; bless His name!
For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100 ESV

Gratitude. Thanksgiving.