(Thanksgiving) Expressing our thanksgiving for God’s covenant faithfulness, drawn from Psalm 89:1: 
 
I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever; 
To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth. 

Almighty Father,  

As we reflect on the incarnation of Christ and his first advent during this season, we have great cause to praise you for your faithfulness to your promises and covenants throughout history. 

In the Garden of Eden, you promised that a seed of Eve would crush the serpent’s head, with Abraham you covenanted that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, to David you swore that through his lineage a son would rule forever, and by the prophets you guaranteed your sovereign salvation through a suffering and exalted savior. 

Father, we find you to be faithful in your promises. With the eyes of faith, we see Satan powerless to stop Christ’s first advent and struck by the mortal blow of Christ’s resurrection; we see many nations, represented in this very room, blessed through the lineage of Abraham; we see Christ exalted at your right hand; and we see your great atonement brought through the sacrifice of Christ.  

We marvel, we rejoice, and we are poured out in thanksgiving for your faithfulness, Father. Our praise and reverence are increased all the more when we consider that your promise to Eve was made in the midst of her sin and rebellion. Your covenant with Abraham was fashioned in his ignorance and fear. Your assurance to David was granted after he had shown himself adept at adultery, deception, and murder. And the prophets—themselves often failing—brought your promises to a rebellious, wayward, uncaring people. 

We have done nothing to deserve your promises, and were we given a part to play in guaranteeing your covenant or safeguarding its completion, our hopes and our salvation must immediately fail, for we are sinful, dishonorable, unreliable, undeserving, and promise breakers by nature. 

You are faithful, and by your unfailing name and nature you have secured our salvation. We thank you and praise you for your love that purposed to save us, for your faithfulness that brought our Savior to earth, and for your power that has brought us to you.  

Because of your faithfulness, we can even now thank you, Father, for what you will yet do. Because of your faithfulness, we can rejoice and praise you knowing that your promises will literally, fully, visibly, and finally be fulfilled. Because of your faithfulness, we look with expectation for the second advent of Christ. We anticipate that the serpent and his rebels will be brought to everlasting judgement and death, all your redeemed from all the families of the earth will be blessed in worshipping you for eternity, Christ will reign in his physical body upon the earth, and our salvation will be complete in resurrected glory. 

May our singing, our prayer, our giving, our repentance, our attendance to your Word, our discipleship, and our conversations today be granted greater intensity and a firm foundation as we consider your faithfulness. 

This we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.