Dr. Rick Mandl - November 23, 2020
Whats Your Favorite Holiday?
Devotional Manuscript: What’s Your Favorite Holiday?
Message By Dr Rick Mandl, November 23, 2020
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
Hey church family, What is your favorite holiday? According to all the surveys, Christmas is America’s number one choice. And certainly it’s a wonderful thing to celebrate the birth of our Lord. It’s something we should do so every day. But Thanksgiving is the one American observance which is specifically mandated by Scripture: A verse that I keep coming back to is . . . “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). In other words Thanksgiving is the will of God.
Sadly for many Americans, Thursday’s holiday will be more about food, football and shopping than gratitude for God’s favor. Why? Because many of us feel like everything we have is something that we’ve worked for, and something we deserve. It’s hard to thank someone else for work we did ourselves. But think about that for a moment. Did you deserve your physical health and capabilities? The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth asks the question, “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
I pray that this Thanksgiving, whether it’s a time for you of abundance, or a time of lack, we’d be able to adopt the attitude of God’s servant Job, who was a man who knew what it was to experience tremendous blessing, and also knew what it was to experience tremendous loss, and yet he realized that his changing circumstances shouldn’t change his decision to praise God.
In Job 1:21 Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” My prayer for you and me is that that would be our attitude as well.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
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