We Gather Together: Daily Devotionals for Thanksgiving Based on the Hymn, "We Gather Together."

By Gwendolyn Harmon

Intended to be a prelude to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, this devotional takes the words to "We Gather Together" and focuses on the hymnist's original theme of God's faithfulness to His people, as well as the need for God's continued help to preserve the freedom of worship we Americans so often take for granted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Learning Ladyhood Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736601112

Gwendolyn Harmon

Gwendolyn Harmon is a teacher, writer, and church musician who loves to encourage Christian ladies to be all that God designed them to be. She is the author of the Hymns for the Heart series and Learning Ladyhood, a blog about learning to be not just a woman, but a godly lady as well. To learn more, visit www.learningladyhood.com.

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We Gather Together

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing,

He chastens and hastens His will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,

Sing praises to His name, He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,

Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine; 

So from the beginning the fight we were winning,

Thou, Lord wast at our side: The glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant, 

And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be.

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;

Thy name be ever praised: O Lord, make us free!

Theodore Baker

1

To Ask

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing

I always used to take for granted the ability to gather with my family and friends, especially during a holiday. Always, that is, until the year my governor declared it illegal to gather. Suddenly, celebrating Thanksgiving with one’s extended family became an act of rebellion, even a misdemeanor.

Perhaps you experienced something similar during the pandemic. I think the quarantines and restrictions have given Christians in      America a taste of what many before us have suffered at the hands of anti-Christian governments, and what many today are suffering in many countries of the world where persecution of Christians is a daily occurrence.

This hymn, We Gather Together, was written in 1597 to celebrate Holland’s newly-won freedom from Spain, at that time a strictly Catholic nation which had overrun their country, terrorizing and     persecuting Protestant Christians throughout the land.

You’ll notice the theme of God’s deliverance throughout the hymn, but this first line suggests another facet to our American Thanksgiving gatherings. We gather, we eat, we celebrate, and hopefully we also     remember to give thanks to God for His provision.

When the Christians in Holland gathered to celebrate their new    independence and religious freedom, they were not just there to thank God, though that was part of it. They gathered to ask for the blessing of God on their new nation. I imagine their attitude would have been similar to that of our founding fathers during the formation of the United States.

You and I