Thanksgiving: The Words of President Abraham Lincoln

Fresh Manna

by Pastor Tim Burt

1 Chronicles 16:8 “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people”

It seems as though there has been a great effort made over the last decade to hinder anyone from a child on up from freely talking about Almighty God whom we are thankful to for every good thing in our life.

A poem on Thanksgiving from a child in school today might read like this:

Thanks You Know Who…
The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what.
When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who.
Because of them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where.

May we please on this Thanksgiving remember one of our past great leaders who had no reservations about speaking of the thanks and prayer due to Almighty God who has blessed our nation.

These are the words of President Abraham Lincoln, April 30, 1863
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and 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 self- sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

With this attitude, may we plan something with those we love, to give bold repentance and thanksgiving to our God who has blessed our great nation and is the only one who can put it back on track!” – President Abraham Lincoln, April 30, 1863