Welcome to our series, 5 Days of Thanksgiving Family Devotions! We pray these 5 days of devotionals will encourage your family to reflect on God’s many blessings during this season. Catch up on the whole series here. 

Read:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17

This verse in James reminds us that every good thing is from God. The verse also tells us that God never changes—He is the same, and His gifts are the same, no matter what is going on. What an important reminder about God’s nature and how perfectly He loves us!

When President Abraham Lincoln declared the first Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, he wanted all Americans to remember the source of their blessings and gifts. Even in the middle of a horrible war (the Civil War), Lincoln knew that the people had a lot to be thankful for. God was still present and working—and blessing His people—during the war. In his proclamation making Thanksgiving a holiday in in 1863, he said that the year was full of “the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies,” and that “They are gracious gifts of the Most High God.”

Talk:

1. What good gifts can you thank God for today?

2. What do you think it means that God never changes?

3. Why do you think it’s important to thank God, even in hard times?

Pray:

Can you think of some of the biggest blessings in your life this year? What is something good that has happened? Did you see God show His beauty and love in the middle of something hard? Let’s share those things together, and then praise God for His good gifts to us.