In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” I Thessalonians 5:18 (NASB)

 

Is it just me or does it feel like we skip straight from Halloween to Christmas?  The stores are already putting out Christmas decorations and the radio stations are already talking about how they want to play Christmas music.  I am confused. It seems to me that we are skipping over the important season of thankfulness and the Thanksgiving holiday straight to the gift-giving hyper-commercialized Black Friday which some stores are already advertising “Black Friday Like sales” today!!! What’s going on?

 

Jesus in Luke 12:15 says “… Beware, and be on guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of possessions” (NASB).  That definitely does not sound like something we practice today.  In fact, in light of that warning, I believe we are seeing another subtle attack of the enemy on our society as a whole.  Consider the following.

 

If Paul tells us that we should be thankful in everything we do, yet the holiday around which we have built a culture of thankfulness is being passed over then when will we as a society remember to give thanks?  Add to that a replacement of Thanksgiving with a “holiday” built around purchasing as many “great deals” as possible and you can see that we are encouraged not to give thanks but instead to be greedy.

 

A familiar Kirk Franklin song encourages us to remember that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and we can celebrate Christ and His work every day if we encourage thankfulness.  However, as the weather changes and we look eagerly ahead to Christmas, let us not forget the admonishment by Jesus to not try and fill our life with possessions.  Whether we have a huge Christmas or a small one.  Whether our Thanksgiving is all we imagined it would be or not, we should never miss an opportunity to be thankful.  For in this mindset we please the Father and we can defeat the “fiery darts of the enemy” which he shoots at us in the form of unhappiness due to not having what everyone else has.