More Than the Feast of Food

Today, many in the United States will gather with family, friends, and others to celebrate our national Thanksgiving holiday. A day we recognize when provision had been made for survival and the abundance of the harvest was reaped and enjoyed. We will gather in living rooms, community centers, church basements, around dining room tables, and elsewhere to remember with gratitude and to feast.

While many dishes will be laid out before us today, the greatest dish, if you will pardon the expression, that we can partake of is the faithfulness of our God. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed,” is what the Bible reminds us in Psalm 37:3. It is only by what God has done in our lives and for us that we are here today. It is only because of His grace and mercy we are not consumed (Lamentations 3:22, 23). Apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), and so, let the center of my affection today and all days, not rest on the feast and the gatherings (although we can enjoy them), but on Him whose faithfulness not only brought us to the joy of the gathering around this table, but will usher us to a more glorious table to come: “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love,” (Song of Solomon 2:4). One day we will fully come into His eternal celebration with uninhibited thanksgiving, gather around and enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9), and celebrate with Him forever.

But our forever there states with our relationship with Him here. Today, remember to do more than fill your body with food from this natural feast, but take in more of Him, Jesus, that your soul may be eternally satisfied: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him,” (Psalm 34:8).

“If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:11-13)

Father God, thank You for Your faithfulness in our lives and the feasting pleasure of knowing and taking in of You more and more.

“He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” (John 6:56, 57)

His holy provision has been made. Come, and join the feast.

Daily

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

The soul must recognize, and the heart acknowledge, there is not a day that goes by when we don’t need the holy provisions that come from on high. The hope, joy, and peace of heaven – every good, and every perfect gift from above – all of it we need daily to feed this spiritual life (James 1:17).

You, O God, are the one true source of all. To look anywhere else to nourish our souls for these times would be a futile pursuit. It is in You that we find the freedom we so long for. It is before You, we lay our cares, our thoughts, our burdens at Your holy feet.

Whatever we place there may feel like a lot to us, but it is never too much for You. So, daily You invite us to come, ask, seek, knock, and believe in faith (Matthew 7:7-8).

Today, and every day, we know that we need You. You, who were the manna in the wilderness, are the daily, living bread we need for this life right now (John 6:47-51). As a man starved in appetite, let us look to You for our heavenly sustenance (Matthew 5:6). You are the hope we lean upon, daily.

Friend, go to Him, daily.