A LITURGY FOR FEASTING WITH FRIENDS (Douglas McKelvey)

GIVING THANKS WHEN YOUR FAMILY IS STRUGGLING (Laura Baxter)

This Thanksgiving, as you gather around the table, don’t be afraid to name your crisis. Talk about your “fleas”: your struggles with mental illness, your loneliness, your unemployment. Then fight your way to gratitude. Paul describes believers as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10). By the help of the Holy Spirit, this can be true of you. Take your broken heart to him. Weep. And then give thanks.

THE LOST ART OF FEASTING (David Mathis)

We’ve grown dull to the wonder of ample food and drink through constant use, and overuse. When every day is a virtual feast, we lose the blessing of a real one. When every meal is a pathway to indulgence, not only is fasting lost, but true feasting is as well.

A PRAYER FOR THANKSGIVING DAY (Scotty Smith)

What a glorious exchange—Jesus got our sin and we got his righteousness. What a glorious gospel we have. What a glorious God you are. What a magnificent Thanksgiving Day this is. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus wonderful and merciful name.

HOW TO PRAY FOR PEOPLE YOU AREN’T THANKFUL FOR (Brad Russell)

This Thanksgiving consider starting a new tradition. Bring the most difficult people in your life before the Father. You and your family will always have to deal with difficult people. Embrace the work of God being done in your own hearts through them. And then, by God’s love, mercy, and grace produced in you, find ways to embrace them in prayer and service. Those difficult people may just be the greatest hidden blessings of God in your life.