Thanksgiving

Last week we saw that our debt to God is much greater than we can ever repay.  Not only has he given us our life here but, in dying on the Cross for our salvation, he has also given us the opportunity of sharing his glorious life in Heaven.  For these two gifts alone we could never be too thankful to him, but that is not all he has done for us.

God’s great goodness to us

In the Prayer of General Thanksgiving in the Prayer Book (1) we thank God for our creation (that is, for having made us), for our preservation (that is, for having looked after us all our life), and for all the blessings of this life (our home, our food, our friends and pets and all the good things that make us happy).  Then we thank God above all for his “inestimable love in the redemption of the world by Our Lord Jesus Christ” (that is, for Our Lord’s death on the Cross to bring us back to God).  After that we thank God for the means of grace (that is, the Sacraments – Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Communion – by means of which he gives us his grace and gets us ready for Heaven).. Lastly we thank God for the hope of glory (that is, the hope of Heaven).  So you can see we have plenty to be thankful for.

The Eucharist

The great public Christian act of thanksgiving is the Eucharist, which actually means The Thanksgiving.  For at the Eucharist we thank God for all his goodness to us, and in particular we there offer to God our Crucified and Risen Saviour himself as a thank-offering for our salvation.