A Prayer about Thanksgiving

Merciful Lord,

As we begin the month of November, 

it seems fitting to offer a prayer of thanksgiving. 

While in America, Thanksgiving Day is about 

celebrating the bravery and endurance of early settlers, 

our truest thanksgiving as settlers of your kingdom

 is about something so much more profound. 

We celebrate because we cried out to you 

in our “distress and anguish,”

when we were entangled in “the snares of death” (Psalm 116:3). 

You not only inclined your ear to us, 

you sent your Son to save us out of our misery, 

to deliver us from our bondage to sin and death. 

Not because we deserved it. 

Only because of your mercy and grace. 

Not only did you deliver us from death, 

you delivered “[our] eyes from tears, 

[our] feet from stumbling.” 

And now we will “walk before you 

in the land of the living” forever and ever (Psalm 116:9). 

Today and throughout this month, 

when we think of thanksgiving, 

may we think first of all the reasons we have 

to give you thanks. 

In Jesus’ saving name. Amen. 

Read Psalm 116.

Want to read more about thanking God while we live in the “already” and “not yet”? I’ve begun two new newsletters on Substack, one on living in hope in the already and not yet, and the other on aging, caregiving, and the end of life. Please check them both out!