Negative Thanksgiving Series

you did not have to carry, and see that negative thanksgiving becomes a basis for rejoicing

even when all is not well. We must be constantly aware of just how little we really know

about the future. We jump to conclusions all the time because we assume that we know that

certain non-events will be destructive to our future.

Naomi had a plan. She was going to get Ruth to go back to Moab, and she would be free

of all responsibility. She failed to achieve her goal, however, and Ruth refused to go back.

What she longed for did not happen, but this non-event, the thing she sought for, was the

best thing that never happened to Naomi. Had it happened she and Ruth would have

separated and gone into oblivion and played no roll in God's plan. It was this non-event that

led to her greatest success. Thank God for things that do not happen. Naomi and Ruth had

a future filled with thankfulness because God prevented Naomi from doing things in her

grief that would have defeated His best for them both.

The point is, you do not know which is best for you. Is it failure or success? So when the

dream you have does not happen, and the goal you set does not materialize, do not give up

hope, for the non-happening may yet be the basis for your thanksgiving. Give God time to

show you how even the negatives of life can prevent you from missing the positives that He

has waiting for you. Both good things and bad things that do not happen can be the best

things that never happened to you.

Lavonne and I have thanked God so many times for one of the best things that never

happened to me. Had we gotten the service we wanted at a drive in one summer night my

friends and I might never have gotten impatient and gone to another town down the road,

and I never would have met Lavonne. It was a negative situation that caused it to happen.

What we wanted to happen was not happening, but because of that non-happening one of the

best things that ever happened to me happened. It was a non-event that prevented me from

missing a major event. Thank God for those things which never happened. Next we look at-

2 NEGATIVES THAT ARE PASSING.

David avoided many of the sorrows of life, and much evil was prevented in his life for

which he was deeply thankful. But the fact is, it is only in paradise that all evil is prevented,

and so David had his share of life's sorrows. He experienced sickness of body and sickness of

mind. He had fear and depression, and many tears over life's problems. He experienced

sickness of soul because of sin and separation from God. He acknowledges all of these in

Psa. 30. Yet none of these negatives stops this from being a Psalm of thanksgiving. It is

because all of these negatives are merely temporary, and they all pass away, and they leave

only the positives as permanent. In other words, what does not happen is the negatives of life

stay and hang on forever.

They come and they go. They are no nomads that pack up and move on. That they visit us

at all is a pain, but that they don't stay is our great pleasure. They happen, but they do not