Sunday, September 13, 2026
“Forgive us, Lord, for shallow thankfulness, / For dull content with warmth and sheltered care, / For songs of praise for food and harvest press, / While of Your richer gifts we’re unaware.”
From their earliest years, many children are taught to say please and thank you and to write thank-you notes for gifts. Giving thanks is a kind and helpful custom and an important Christian response as well. The apostle Paul reminds us, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). God wants us to give thanks to Him. It is a trait of our life in Christ to be practiced daily and developed into a lifelong habit that will last into eternity.
Our hymn is a prayer of repentance concerning the quality or depth of our gratitude: “Forgive us, Lord, for shallow thankfulness.” We ask the Lord to forgive us for being content only with warmth and shelter. We repent of shallow thankfulness that is limited to praise for food and harvest blessings, but we should not stop singing those kinds of hymns on Thanksgiving and throughout the year! Homes and harvests are wonderful blessings from God. We want to give thanks to Him for those gifts, but our gratitude cannot stop there. We also praise God for richer gifts, purchased for us at great cost by the blood of our Savior.
Psalm 107 presents several different scenes in which the people involved have good reason for gratitude. They are delivered from hunger and thirst, danger, imprisonment and death. Each time these instructions follow: “Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:21). Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been delivered from sin, death, and hell. These are not blessings that we deserve, but gifts of God’s love and grace. Through Baptism, we are adopted into the household of God as His precious sons and daughters. We receive Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, a gift that is also called the Eucharist, or the Thanksgiving. The Lord speaks to us through the inspired words of Holy Scripture. God has blessed us with warmth and shelter, with family, friends, and rich harvests, yet He has also blessed us beyond measure with His grace and forgiveness, given through the very ordinary means of words, water, bread and wine. God has blessed us with homes and harvests and, what is more, He has delivered us from sin and death. So let us thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man!
WE PRAY: Forgive me, Lord, when I fail to praise You for all of the gifts You have given to me. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Forgive Us, Lord, for Shallow Thankfulness,” which is number 788 in the Lutheran Service Book.
Reflection Questions: