Humiliation & Thanksgiving: When Fasting Preceded Feasting

Episode Description

Before America ever set a table for Thanksgiving, Christians across the colonies gathered for something very different: a public day of fasting, humiliation, and repentance. Why did our spiritual ancestors refuse to feast until they had first fasted? And why did C.F.W. Walther, preaching during the Civil War, warn that Americans had grown too proud to repent?

In this episode, we explore:

The forgotten Christian practice of national days of repentance

How Thanksgiving originally followed fasting and public confession

Why prosperity is spiritually dangerous

Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of a national fast

Walther’s warning that Americans wanted blessings without humility

This is not a nostalgic history lesson—it’s a prophetic call to rediscover gratitude rooted in repentance, blessings received as undeserved mercy, and thanksgiving that begins at the foot of the cross.