Give Thanks!
by Scott R. Bayles, preacher
Church of Christ
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Among the lessons Viktor Fankl learned in the Nazi death-camp, Auschwitz, was to take time to be thankful and to count your blessings. He wrote that prisoners in the camp dreamed at night about a certain set of things more than anything else: bread, cakes, and warm baths--the very things we take for granted every day.
Frankl said that the prisoners around him began to appreciate beauty as never before. In one especially poignant paragraph, he wrote:
"If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of our prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor--or maybe because of it--we were carried away by nature’s beauty, which we had missed for so long." (Nelson 734)
How amazing it is to us that a people who experienced such pain and loss could be so thankful and appreciative of such small blessings. It’s even more amazing to me that we seem to exhibit a degree of thankfulness in life in reverse proportion to the amount of blessings we’ve received. Martian Luther wrote, "The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded."
A hungry man is more thankful for his small morsel than a rich man for his heavy-laden table. A lonely woman in a nursing home will appreciate a visit more than a popular woman with a party thrown in her honor. A Russian who finally gets his own copy of the Holy Scriptures after seventy-five years of state-imposed atheism is more thankful for his little Bible than we are for all the Christian books, magazines, and translations that overflow our shelves.
Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they are there every night, we barely give them a look.
One of the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is a gradual reversal of that twisted pattern. God wants to make us people who exhibit a thankfulness in proper proportion to the gifts and blessings we’ve received. But thankfulness is more than just a sermon, a prayer, or even a feeling--it is a way of life! How do we live more thankful and appreciative lives? Psalm 9 is David’s psalm of thanksgiving. Let’s read the first few stanzas of this inspired prose together...
Psalm 9:1-10 (NASB-u)
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. [2] I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
[3] When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish before You. [4] For You have maintained my just cause; You have sat on the throne judging righteously. [5] You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever. [6] The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins, And You have uprooted the cities; The very memory of them has perished.
[7] But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, [8] And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. [9] The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble; [10] And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.
An old Swedish hymn says:
Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
thanks for all thou dost provide!
Thanks for time now but a mem’ry,
thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
thanks for dark and dreary fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
thanks for peace within my soul!
In David’s psalm of thanksgiving, he not only says "I will give thanks," but he describes three ways in which we can live a life of thankfulness. How do live grateful and appreciative lives? First, we can live out our thankfulness by...
I. WITNESSING:
David said, "I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders" (v. 1). Even in the face of the enemy’s threats, the psalmist thanks God for the deliverance He has given. David describes the victory in verses 3-6, verses that should be read in the past tense: "When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish before You." Faith faces the future without fear because it has behind it a past that witnesses to the trustworthiness and power of the Lord!
And, David wasn’t going to keep his thankfulness between himself and God. He wanted to shout it from the mountain tops. He was going to tell everyone he knew about the great things God had done for him. His aim was to honor the Lord, not to glorify himself. His joy was in the Lord, not just in the victory he had been given, and He wanted to tell everyone about God’s wonderful works!
When was the last time you stopped someone to tell them what God has done for you? If we are truly grateful and thankful in our lives, then we will want to "tell of all His wonders." That’s where evangelism finds its beginning. A simple elevator operator in a hospital in Nashville once said, "I’m just a nobody telling everybody about Somebody who can save anybody" (Nelson 777). That’s an attitude of gratitude.
Bill Bright has said, "Success in witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, then leaving the results to God." He went on to make a powerful statement, in his book How To Tell Others About Christ, that I myself strive to live by:
Although I have shared Christ personally with many thousands of people through the years, I am a rather reserved person and I do not always find it easy to witness. But I have made this my practice, and I urge you to do the same: Assume that whenever you are alone with another person for more than a few moments, you are there by divine appointment to explain to that person the love and forgiveness he/she can know through faith in Jesus Christ. (Nelson 779)
When you encounter another person and are given the opportunity to speak with them, talk to them. Ask them if they believe they are a good person--if they believe they are saved. Then share with them how you were brought to Christ, tell them about the Gospel of Jesus as it is recorded in the Bible, and express how thankful you are to be a part of His kingdom. When we begin to "tell of all His wonders," He will begin to do more wonders, and we will have even more for which to be thankful.
Robert Shockey is another person who doesn’t believe in chance encounters. To him, every contact is an opportunity to tell God’s story. When he answers the phone, for example, and hears the person on the other end saying, "Sorry I must have the wrong number," Bob responds: "Maybe not!"
Usually there is a pause on the line, followed by something like, "What do you mean?" That gives Shockey an opening to initiate a conversation about the Gospel. He has led more than one person to faith in Christ that way.
Charles Spurgeon urged his listeners, "Try to turn the conversation to profitable use ... Be ready to seize opportunities skillfully, and lead on unnoticeably in the desired track. If your heart is in it and your wits are awake, it will be easy enough, especially if you breathe a prayer for guidance."
Each of us, in trying to live a life of thankfulness need to tell others about the wonderful works of God--and most importantly His work of salvation. The first employ in living more appreciative lives is witnessing. The second is...
II. WORSHIPING:
In the next verse, David exclaims, "I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High" (v. 2). David not only expressed his thankfulness by telling others about the wonderful deeds God had done, he also spoke to God about them--worshipping and singing praises to His name.
Adelaide Procter wrote a famous poem (later set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan) about a woman who sat down at the piano one autumn day just at twilight and struck a chord that swelled within the instrument with soft majesty. It flowed through the room and filled the whole house with melody. It also thrilled her heart with peace. It was the most beautiful chord in the world.
It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.
It linked all perplexed meanings
Into on perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loath to cease.
The woman lifted her fingers from the keys and the sound faded away. Something broke the spell, and when she tried again, she could not find that beautiful chord. She sought repeatedly to reproduce it, but in vain. It was a lost chord.
For many Christians and many churches, worship is the missing chord in their experience. It is the one thing that quiets pain and sorrow like love overcoming strife. It is the one thing that makes harmonious echoes from our discordant lives. But for many, it is a lost experience. Oh, we may assemble at the mountain on the Lord’s day and even lift our voices in song, but for many of us the Lord’s words still resound, "This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lips, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote" (Isaiah 29:13).
True, heartfelt worship is the missing chord in the lives of so many Christians. The Bible says that we should magnify the Lord and rejoice in Him forever. What does that mean? Robert J. Morgan, in a sermon he prepared, said:
"One recent evening when the moon was full I studied it from my back porch. It seemed as clear and close as the globe on the lamp post. Finding binoculars, I steadied them against the railing and magnified the moon. In other words, I focused on it, made it larger in my eyes, and studied it until I was overwhelmed with it’s ivory plains and dimly outlined mountains, with its splotched craters and jagged edges." (Nelson 813)
What happens when we magnify the Lord? Just that. We focus on Him, make Him larger in our eyes, and study Him until overwhelmed with His brightness, His love, His grace, His care, His power. And when we do that, the next verb comes into play--we rejoice in God our Savior. Magnifying Christ brings joy to our hearts--joy that levels every mountain and fills every valley. "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name forever" (Psalm 34:3).
Worship is not something that is contain within a brick building on Sunday mornings. Paul and Silas lifted their voices in praise at midnight behind prison bars. Surely, we can worship behind the wheel of our car, at our bedside, behind a desk, or at the family table. Anywhere and everywhere you go can become a place of worship, if you will but breathe a prayer or sing praises to His name. When your heart is filled with gratitude, the overflow will pour out as praise to the Lord. Witnessing and worshipping are the first two ways that David gives us to demonstrate our thankfulness. The third is...
III. WAITING:
Notice what David says at the end of our reading: "The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble; [10] And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You" (v. 9-10).
What a powerful statement! David, here, urges us to wait upon the Lord--to trust in Him, lean on Him, take refuge in Him. When we become anxious, troubled, or disheveled about life, it demonstrates a lack of thankfulness for the blessing God has provided. But when we trust in Him and wait on Him, He is pleased with us.
Have you heard about the Chinese bamboo tree? The Chinese plant the seed; they water and fertilize it, but the first year nothing happens. The second year they water and fertilize it, and still nothing happens. The third and fourth years they water and fertilize it, and nothing happens. Then the fifth year they water and fertilize it, and sometime during the course of the fifth year, in a period of approximately six weeks, the Chinese bamboo trees grow roughly ninety feet tall.
The question is, did it grow ninety feet in six weeks or did it grow ninety feet in five years? The obvious answer is that it grew ninety feet in five years, because had they not applied the water and fertilizer each year there would have been no growth at all. All of us have these "Chinese bamboo tree" experiences. There are times in our lives when God’s will a mystery to us. We can’t always see what’s on the other side of the mountain. But it is at those times that we must trust in Him and wait upon the Lord.
An almost forgotten hymn by Fanny Crosby speaks out:
Wait on the Lord, wait cheerfully,
And He will thy youth renew;
Wait on the Lord obediently,
Whatever He bids thee do.
Wait on the Lord, for whom hast thou
On earth or in heaven but He?
Over thy soul a watch He keeps,
Whatever they path may be.
Once upon a time, a ship was wrecked in a furious storm and the only survivor was a little boy who was swept by the waves onto a rock. He sat there all night long until, the next morning, he was spotted and rescued.
"Did you tremble while you were on the rock during the night?" someone later asked.
"Yes," said the boy. "I trembled all night--but the rock didn’t."
The Bible says, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold" (Psalm 18:2). No matter what storms may come, we cannot be moved so long as we cling to the rock of our salvation.
Conclusion:
Thanksgiving is essential to personal victory. The famous stress researcher, Hans Seyle, claims that two attitudes more than any other influence the quality of everyday life, and on these two emotions "depend our peace of mind, our feelings of security or insecurity, of fulfillment or frustration, in short, the extent to which we can make a success of life." The most destructive emotion is revenge. But in contrast, "among all the emotions, there is one which more than any other accounts for the absence or presence of stress in human relations: that is the feeling of gratitude."
Living a thankful and appreciative life, is essential to happiness, success, and salvation. How do we live that kind of life? By...
Witnessing: telling others of what God has done for us.
Worshipping: singing and praising the Lord everyday for His goodness. And...
Waiting: trusting in God to see us through, even when life seems at it’s worst.
Invitation:
What are you thankful for? Have you counted your blessings lately? Is eternal salvation among them? The blood that Jesus shed, the life He gives, is the greatest gift ever given. And, God has offered it to you. Have you accepted it? Are you washed in the precious blood of Jesus? Are you thankful for the sacrifice He made?
Two thousand years later, Jesus still invites: "Come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." If you are subject to that invitation, please come now...
