Volume 1 Issue 11

IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS

“R

ejoice always; pray without ceasing; IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Thessalonians 5:16-18) How difficult this is; how unnatural. Rather than giving thanks, even for those things we have been blessed with, we look at what others have and discover the sin of covetous in our hearts. Instead of being thankful for our home or car or food or clothes or health, we cry out to God for a bigger home, a nicer car, steaks instead of hamburger, newer clothes, or complain about an occasional ache in our bodies. That we have ANY home, ANY car, ANY food, ANY clothes, and health that allows us to enjoy the simple pleasures of walking, riding a bike, holding our children, or caring for ourselves should shame us into asking the Lord to forgive us for our selfishness. How many people that are your neighbors or that live a world away would be thankful to have what you take for granted? Paul summed up the necessities of life: “And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8) We must learn to look at what the Lord has done for us rather than what the world tells us we lack. We truly have much to be thankful for.

Most people, when they begin to take an honest look at their circumstances, can find things for which to be thankful. There is a proverb that tells of a man who complained of having no shoes until he met a man having no feet. Complaining about what we lack materially is a sign of spiritual blindness. Which person is better off? The unsaved person in perfect health or the saved person confined to a wheelchair? Too often when we think of healing or God’s blessings we limit our desires to that which touches our bodies and to a lesser extent what touches our souls. The soul consists of our intellect, will, and emotions. This part of our being is what makes us, us. It is our personality and our mind. Our soul cries out for happiness and fulfillment. We think that if we have a different job, a different spouse, live in a different part of the country, the emptiness we experience would vanish. This is a lie that the world and Satan would have us believe. We will never be satisfied or happy UNTIL we learn to be satisfied or happy, that is THANKFUL for what the Lord has already provided.

The Apostle Paul suffered greatly at the hands of those who hated him. Most of that hatred came from his own people, the Jews. They stirred up whole cities that he was preaching in to the point they would stone him or imprison him. How did he respond to such treatment? After being stripped, whipped, and thrown in a dungeon along with Silas, “about midnight PAUL AND SILAS WERE PRAYING AND SINGING HYMNS OF PRAISE TO GOD, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, AND EVERYONE'S CHAINS WERE UNFASTENED.” (Acts 16:25-26) Such circumstances will all too often cause us to question God’s mercy toward us. Rather than singing and praising God, we would curse our bad fortune or look at the injustice done to us. Yet, these verses reveal what a spirit of praise and thanksgiving does not only for us, but for EVERYONE around us. The chains that bound not only Paul and Silas, the voices from which praise and thanksgiving originated, were loosed, but the chains from those who LISTENED to them were loosed also. That is the power of thanksgiving.

God commands us to offer thanksgiving not for our benefit alone, but for the benefit of all who come in contact with us. When bad things happen to us others look intently to see how we will react. They wonder if we really believe that thanksgiving is to be expressed at ALL times. It is relative easy to show people that we should be thankful for what we have already been blessed with. We may have a small home, but it is home; we may have an old car, but it runs; we may not be able to afford new clothes or shop in the fanciest stores, but we are clothed; we may not like everything about our job and we may sometimes feel we are taken advantage of, but it does provide the basic necessities of life; we may not be in perfect health, but we are able to enjoy the freedom of living on our own. There will always be others who lack even what we have and would be grateful for anything we may wish to discard. The distinction of true thankfulness and gratitude comes when injustice or evil intrudes upon us.

Jesus told us we must learn to die to self if we are to follow Him. How thankful and grateful we are is a good indicator of how much we have accomplished that. If we can see others around us who the Lord is blessing when our own needs are so much greater, yet the Lord seems to be ignoring us, and we can still rejoice with the one who is being blessed, that is dying to self. The Lord is teaching us to take our eyes off our difficulties and see what He is doing for others.

The Lord Himself said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” (Matthew 11:11) Yet, after John had been thrown into Herod’s dungeon for speaking out about his relationship with Herodias he questioned if Jesus was truly the Messiah. John had earlier made the public proclamation concerning Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! THIS IS HE on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” (John 1:29-30) But John was experiencing severe hardship. He probably realized that he had a good chance of being killed, never getting the opportunity to again be a free man. John had believed Jesus was the Messiah when he was free, but his imprisonment caused doubts to arise in his mind. It was as if he had been forgotten by Jesus as he wasted away in a cold, dark dungeon. It was more than John could understand so he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He really was the Messiah or should he looked for someone else. “And He answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.’” (Luke 7:22) At first it appears as an odd response. Jesus does not tell John’s disciples to go back and reassure him that He is the Messiah, that if he just hangs in there for a little while longer he will be released from the dungeon in which he has been unjustly imprisoned. Instead, Jesus told John’s disciples to let him know that the work of the Messiah is being done IN OTHER PEOPLE. The blind were given sight, the deaf were made to hear, the lame were made to walk, etc. In essence Jesus told John to take his eyes off his own troubles, his own difficulties, his own misery and look what is being done in the lives of others. No doubt John, like Paul and Silas later in a dungeon themselves, learned to praise and thank God NOT for what was happening to him, but because others were being blessed. That is a very distinct mark of spiritual maturity.

That we will be treated unfairly, criticized, ridiculed, mocked, misunderstood, and even hated should not surprise us. If we live as Christians we will have more than our fair share of injustice, even from those closest to us. Jesus warned us, “But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name.” (Luke 21:16-17) As the world continues to spin more and more out of control, as immorality floods us from every direction, as violence becomes the norm, true Christians will stand out like bright neon lights at midnight. We will become thorns in the side of those who wish to live lives totally devoid of holiness and righteousness. The holiness and righteousness that is given to us by Jesus will stand in stark contrast to the world. Even now if you so much as refuse to go to a popular movie because its contents feature objectionable language, violence, or sex you are looked upon as old fashioned, out of touch, overly sensitive, a prude. If your friends begin to discuss the latest television show that you refuse to watch and you have no idea what they are talking about they look at you as if you are sick. Simply refusing to use bad language in your day to day conversation sets you apart. Sinners HATE being around true, committed Christians. They remind them that there are standards of right and wrong, no matter how hard they may try to forget it, no matter how much they try to deceive themselves. Like Jesus, our presence will become too much to endure. Even now Christians are being silenced. Imprisonment will become a reality for those who refuse to deny the Lord Jesus.

What, as Christians, is our response to all of this to be? “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45) Jesus was well aware that the natural reaction to injustice is to fight back, to defend self. But if we have died to self as Jesus commands us, what is there to defend? James goes so far as to say, “Consider it ALL JOY, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4) That which the Lord brings our way, the good and the bad, has a purpose; not a purpose of destruction, but of growth and spiritual maturity. “And we know that God causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Easy words to say, VERY DIFFICULT words to live when our world is pulled out from under us, but NEVERTHELESS true. Just because there are times when we do not believe them does not invalidate them.

The problem is we see things from a very limited point of view. We have the tendency to focus on NOW. We too easily forget that this lifetime is a SMALL part of our existence. Even a life that spans 100 years is NOTHING in comparison to eternity. When we get our eye problem healed we will exclaim with Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ARE NOT WORTHY to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18) We are so willing to suffer the physical pain of strenuous exercise, the discomfort of getting up early to jog, the deprivation of rich foods, or the expense of plastic surgery just to get a share of the Fountain of Youth. We do not curse gravity when we lift weights; it is gravity that makes exercise possible, that allows us to tone our bodies. Why then are we so quick to curse God when we encounter trials and tribulations? Sin is basically spiritual gravity. We are not called to curse sin, but to OVERCOME it. The promises given to the Seven Churches in Revelation were to the OVERCOMERS. We should give thanks for the obstacles placed in our path and we should expect it. Jesus told us “Enter by the NARROW gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is SMALL, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) The word used here for “narrow” and “small” is the Greek word “stenos” and it means narrow, from OBSTACLES STANDING CLOSE ABOUT. Again, one of our greatest obstacles is giving thanks for all things.

“Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, ‘I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.’” (Exodus 15:1) This is the beginning of a song of praise and THANKSGIVING to the Lord for rescuing the Israelites from the Egyptians AFTER they had crossed the Red Sea safely while the Egyptian army perished pursuing them. It is a beautiful song and it was right of the Israelites to rejoice for the victory the Lord had given them over the Egyptians. No doubt it was received as a sweet aroma to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise. HOWEVER, the song could have had an even sweeter aroma and been more pleasing to the Lord if the TIMING of the song had been different.

Just a day prior to the Israelites singing this song of jubilation to the Lord they were singing quite a different tune. As Israel began their exodus of Egypt Pharaoh changed his mind about letting them go so he ordered his army to pursue them and return them to Egypt. Israel had made it as far as the Red Sea and could go no further. The Sea blocked their only way of escape. They were terrified of Pharaoh’s approaching army and angry at Moses for having put them in this no-win situation. “Then they said to Moses, ‘Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 14:11-12) How quickly they had forgotten the miracles the Lord had performed to get Pharaoh to not only let them leave Egypt, but kick them out. How short sighted they were. If the Lord was able to gain their release from slavery after 400 years why could they not trust Him to see them safely on their journey to the Promised Land regardless of the obstacles in the way? “But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.’” (Exodus 14:13-14) What happens next of course is the famous parting of the Red Sea to allowed the Israelites to escape and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army as he attempts to follow them.

The point is God knew what He was going to do all along. The Red Sea and the Egyptian army did not worry Him. He was not in Heaven pacing back and forth, wringing His hands, wondering what to do next. Neither did He expect Moses or the Israelites to be worried either. “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘WHY ARE YOU CRYING OUT TO ME? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.’” (Exodus 14:15) It is almost as if the Lord was saying, “What are you waiting for? Move!” Had the Israelites trusted the Lord they would not have been whining to Moses about how unfair life is. They would not have made such faithless remarks about being better off in Egypt as a slave than to be free. Had they had faith and the correct perception of the Lord, the song sung AFTER their miraculous escape would have been sung BEFORE the Red Sea parted and BEFORE the destruction of the Egyptian army. Had they done that, that would indeed have been a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that the Lord would have savored.

We act in the same way. We see obstacles before us and our past catching up with us. We think it would have been better to never have become a Christian at times because the price seems to high, the path to narrow and lonely. Our family and close friends desert us, think us fanatics, and question our mental balance. They can not understand why we now consider certain conduct wrong or immoral, especially since it was such an intricate part of our lives. They no longer want to associate with us in case whatever it is we have caught is catching. Meanwhile we become angry and bitter because we can not overcome the bad habits that permeate our lives. We are mocked and ridiculed and called hypocrites because our past contains so much of what we are now ashamed of. We believe it would have been better to never have become a Christian, that the old life was not so bad. Yet, at the most unexpected time, in the most unusual way the Lord becomes very real to us and provides the way of escape; not by running away from what is boxing us in, but by OVERCOMING it. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO ENDURE IT.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) It is easy to thank God AFTER we have come through the pain, trials, and tribulations of life, and the Lord accepts those prayers of thanksgiving, but HOW MUCH BETTER it would be to learn to trust the Lord to the point of offering a prayer of thanksgiving BEFORE we physically see how the Lord will work out in our lives all that causes us worry and anxiety. The degree that we trust the Lord will determine not only if we thank Him for all that comes our way, but WHEN we offer the thanks.

A child getting an immunization shot never thanks the parent at that time for it because it causes pain even though the parent is acting from LOVE. The child cries and no doubt harbors unkind feelings toward the doctor or nurse because of the pain. It is not until the child is grown and can understand what germs are and that death can result if immunization is not done that the love the parents acted from becomes evident and the pain acceptable. So it is with us as the Lord works in our lives. Even if we received an explanation from God we would likely not understand, just as the child is incapable of understanding. But we can thank God when it hurts because He always works from love.

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