Giving Thanks in All Circumstances
Brad Bailey – November 27, 2011
Intro
This has always been a special weekend to gather… a time in which we actually GIVE THANKS to God…we share what we are grateful for.
As many have noted…gratitude is quality of life that has been in recession. In just the past 20 years in which I have been pastoring here on the Westside… I have felt the challenge in the midst of our cultural shifts… where stopping to be thankful is almost impossible amidst all the activity at hand… where even the holiday of Thanksgiving is overtaken by enticements of Black Friday.
It might be natural for some of us to feel a little guilty that we haven’t been as grateful as we should… haven’t stopped to give thanks like we should.
But guilt can confuse the issue. It can imply that our lack of gratitude is simply leaving God short. We might think of God as just being like the perturbed parent who after giving their child something…and hearing nothing… says “You’re welcome” with a mastery of sarcasm. While God is deserving of our thanks…beyond what we can even begin to grasp….gratitude is is what we need.
God calls us to give thanks not just because it is deserved but because…
Gratitude is the vital way we take hold of life’s goodness… which is God’s goodness.
Gratitude is like oxygen to the soul.
Gratitude proves quite literally to be that which produces healthier and happier people.
That is why the Bible instructs us to be consistently thankful.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
This is an inspiring proposition… which too often may feel like an insensitive platitude if thrown at us in the midst of hard times.
“How can I be thankful when this is the first Thanksgiving since my mother died? How can I be thankful when my family is in such disarray? How can I be thankful when I’m in the middle of chemotherapy? How can I be thankful when I haven’t been able to work?
Giving thanks in all circumstances is not a call to some superficial charade. Giving thanks in all circumstances is not a call to suppression of grief.
Grieving is not the same as complaining. Grieving can be a partner to gratitude. What we grieve the loss of… we are honoring as significant. If you are grieving for the loss of a loved one… it is a form of gratitude.
So the first quick point that can help us.. is to know that:
1. We can give thanks in all circumstances because we don’t have to understand all of them.
Paul does not suggest we give thanks FOR all circumstances…. But IN all circumstances.
The difference is essential in keeping a healthy life with God. If we think we have to give thanks FOR all circumstances… it means that we either have to understand how all circumstances are in fact good… or that God causes circumstances that may not be good.
But the Scriptures NEVER presume that we will or can understand the purpose at hand in all of life. It is simply beyond us to understand everything.
If we take the Psalms as a model for prayer, then we should certainly feel free, even obligated, to share with the Lord our frustrations and disappointments.
David questioned God. Job questioned God. Even Jesus did it when hanging on a cross.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
Their greatness was not in accepting that everything was good…but in being free to acknowledge what they could not understand... and then accepting their limitations.
Spiritual greatness is not a matter of understanding everything…but of trusting God beyond our understanding.
It is a matter of learning to trust God with what we don’t understand by what we do understand.
The Scriptures tell us that God can work good in all circumstances…not that all circumstances are good in themselves.
I can give thanks in all circumstances because I can leave some to mysteries I can’t understand.
2. We can give thanks in all circumstances because we can direct the focus of our souls.
Paul is stating what we should do because we can do. We can choose to give thanks.
The Psalms, which reflect the inspired worship and prayer which God desires… teach us the significance of directing our soul.
Psalm 103:1-5 (GW)
Praise the LORD, my soul! Praise his holy name, all that is within me. 2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and never forget all the good he has done: 3 He is the one who forgives all your sins, the one who heals all your diseases, 4 the one who rescues your life from the pit, the one who crowns you with mercy and compassion, 5 the one who fills your life with blessings…
Notice how when the Psalmist writes of giving praise…thanks… it is to himself… he is directing his soul…his inner focus. [1]
Listen to what the apostle Paul says to us…
Philippians 4:4, 6, 8 (NLT)
Always… rejoice! …Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. …Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.
Right now there are countless aspects of life that you can consider… past , present, and future. There are pains from the past.. worries about the future. But in the midst of death.. there is life, in the midst of loss there is love… in the midst of injustice there is mercy… in the midst of harshness there is beauty.
No circumstance can take these away. We never lose them… we just lose sight of them… and as Paul reminds us… we can always go get them.
We live in an age governed by a sense of "scarcity." A simple word of gratitude opens us up to world of abundance, mercy, and grace. It may seem a small thing – noticing and thanking – but it's the first step to setting in motion a cycle of gratitude and grace.
It’s common to appreciate the idea of learning to count our blessings.
But it proves harder than we think.
More people can create Christmas lists and New Year’s resolutions… than actually list their blessings (…when the latter is more massive than we know.)
We are quick to think of our desires… and tend to see ourselves surrounded by needs and desire… which makes thanksgiving seem peripheral. The truth is that Thanksgiving has always been centered in the power of giving thanks amidst hard times.
The original gathering that took place by the pilgrims… was amidst those who had little. [2]
Has it ever occurred to you that no Americans were more underprivileged than that small handful from the Mayflower who started the custom of setting aside a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God?
They had no homes & no government agency to help them build homes. They had no means of transportation but their legs. Their only food came from the sea & the forest, & they had to get it for themselves.
They had no money and no place to spend it if they’d had any. They had no amusements except what they made for themselves, no means of communication with their relatives in England, no social security or Medicare.
But anyone who dared to call them underprivileged would probably have ended up in the stocks
When Thanksgiving was declared a holiday – it was amidst the Civil War.
Our annual celebration of Thanksgiving Day traces back to Abraham Lincoln who, in 1863, called for a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. At the height of the Civil War, Lincoln called Americans to remember that “the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies . . . are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.”
Although the country was mired in deep conflict, Lincoln recognized both God’s provision and mercy, exhorting Americans to give thanks to God and to intercede on behalf of their country and its citizens who were suffering.
Lincoln’s words in the midst of a devastating war echo the call of God’s Word and shine a light in the darkness today.
When Paul wrote called he first followers of Jesus to pray and give thanks… even regarding the kings who rule… it was a pretty oppressive government to say the least. [3]
3. We can give thanks in all circumstances because there is a larger goodness that transcends our circumstances.
As Paul said in Philippians.. WHATever is good…lovely..
Note what David … l
“Never forget all the good he has done: He is the one who forgives all your sins, the one who heals all your diseases, the one who rescues your life from the pit, the one who crowns you with mercy and compassion, the one who fills your life with blessings…”
ooks to the goodness of God Himself… who has given life itself… wh redeems life itself.
Closing: We can’t presume to grasp the depths of this call today. Gratitude is a lifelong quality.
But I believe we can begin.
And the focus is to God. Our appreciation for others is great… and it is so fitting to honor those we love… and appreciate….but I want to challenge us to really consider what we are prepared to thank GOD for.
Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself & said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they grew older."
But this missionary had developed a treatment which would stop progressive blindness. So people came to him & he performed his treatment, & they would leave realizing that they would have become completely blind, but because of him their sight had been saved.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
And that is what the Psalmist is saying. "Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside any more. From the depths of your being you shout your joy unto the Lord."
In a moment…. Offer an opportunity for some to share publicly.
First.. invite us all to have an opportunity to stop and let our souls have a moment to consider…
(SILENCE)
Public sharing
Resources: Mark Roberts, Scott Gassoway
Notes:
1. “David is here communing with his own heart, and he is no fool that thus talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good.” – Matthew Henry
2. This paragraph noting original circumstances of Thanksgiving was adapted from Scott Gassoway, The Times, Nov 10, 2011
3. In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” Here Paul urges the common people to be thankful to God for those in power. The Roman government wasn’t known for its benevolent policies, much less for its acknowledgment of the One True God, yet Paul links a grateful disposition toward the government with holiness. - Scott Gassoway
