Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful, blessed time of the year. We think of it as an American holiday and so we should. But as Christians it should be something we do regularly. The word "thanksgiving" is used eight times in the New Testament alone. Paul tells us repeatedly that we should give thanks to God. In his letter to the Phillipians he says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (4:6,NIV). What does thanksgiving mean. I know it means giving thanks, but lets look at the Greek for a moment. The word for thanksgiving is eucharistos. Charistos means grace. Eu is a small prefix that can mean 'good' or as Low and Nida define it as 'excellent', in the science community it can means 'true, or perfect'. Thanksgiving then in short is excellent grace or true grace. As Paul might explain further, it is the result of our receiving excellent Grace. God sheds his love and grace upon us and it results in our giving praise and thanks to God. Our ability to praise God and give thanks is a result of God's grace towards us. Another advantage point to help understand this term is to recognize that the liturgical name given to the Lord's Supper is the Eucharist, excellent grace. We celebrate the eucharist regularly. What then are Christians celebrating world wide? It is thanksgiving, given through the blood and body of our Lord and Savior. The proof is in the pudding or the communion. After I take communion my heart is filled with his grace which causes me to give thanks, excellent thanks, true thanks, thanksgiving in the truest form to our Father. Isn't it great, that as Christians we can do this year around! Happy Eucharist.