Gratitude & Compassion This Thanksgiving
Tuesday’s Verse:
From Psalm 41:1 ESV
“Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him”
As Thanksgiving looms, it is natural for our hearts to fill with gratitude for the blessings that God lavishly pours into our lives: for bread every day, for home and family, for faith and forgiveness and hope. Scripture also calls us to raise our eyes from our own tables and to see those who have so much less. The psalmist sings, the Lord blesses the one “who considers the poor” (Psalm 41:1). Jesus tells us, “As you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).
Lutherans rightly emphasize that good works do not save us. But like a healthy tree bearing fruit, good works will naturally flow from faith in Christ. For since God has already given us everything in Christ, our hands are free to hold out the same compassion and joy to our neighbor.
Thanksgiving, then, is more than a day of feasting, but a moment of reflection. How can my gratitude overflow as mercy? How can my table reach out to someone else?
Solidarity with people experiencing poverty is not about becoming self-righteous experts in saving the world or mending all its injustices. It is about learning to see others with the eyes of Christ. It is about remembering that Jesus came into our human poverty—born in a stable, laid in a manger, living in this world without a home—so that we might enter into the riches of His grace. Paul writes, “Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
This Gospel changes everything.
It softens the heart.
It opens the hand.
It moves us from sympathy to solidarity—to walking with the poor as fellow humans made in God’s image and deeply loved by Him.
And our acts of mercy—food offerings and charity and visiting the lonely and supporting the hungry—become small echoes of Christ’s love at work in us. We do not do them to earn anything from God, but because we already have everything in Him.
May our gratitude overflow this Thanksgiving. May our hearts be shaped after the compassionate heart of Jesus, who draws near to the lowly and lifts the broken up.
A Prayer for Today:
Dear Lord, lead me through the difficulties of life. Give me clarity, bravery, and a calm heart. May I live with love and truth. Keep me near Your Word and steady my steps. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
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