Paul was a man who suffered a great deal of pain and yet wrote, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (I Thess 5: 16-18).
For Paul to give us such an advice is amazing.
• It shows that a Christian can give thanks regardless of what happens.
• We just need to train our eyes to seeing the hand of God in our life.
• It is easy for us to be thankful when things are going well, but as Christians, we can rise above any situation to thank God because we believe He causes all things work together for good.
Giving Thanks for Fleas
Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place relates an incident that taught her an important principle. She and her sister, Betsy, had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp they had seen yet, Ravensbruck.
Upon entering the barracks, they found them extremely overcrowded and flea-infested. Their Scripture reading that morning in 1 Thess had reminded them to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie to stop and thank the Lord for every detail of their new living quarters. Corrie at first flatly refused to give thanks for the fleas, but Betsy persisted. She finally succumbed.
During the months spent at that camp, they were surprised to find how openly they could hold Bible study and prayer meetings without guard interference. It was several months later when they learned that the guards would not enter the barracks because of the fleas.
SOURCE: Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place.
God is good to us.
• Giving thanks force us to look at this God, and acknowledge His role in our lives.
• He is not a ‘hands-off’ God but One who is very committed to our well-being.
• We must giving thanks because we’ve this tendency to take things for granted.
• We do not treasure things or people until we lose them. When they leave us, we regretted not doing enough for them.
(1) Paul did not say to give thanks FOR all circumstances, but IN all circumstances.
• It is not God’s will for things evil or sinful to happen. We cannot be thanking God for everything.
• Not all our circumstances in life are good, but there will always be something in those circumstances for which we can thank God.
• If “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28) then there is some ‘divine’ in every experience of our lives.
Remember the time Paul was taken as prisoner onboard the ship bound for Rome?
• Our adult SS class put up this skit a few months back.
• The ship went through a terrible storm. They had to throw the cargo overboard.
• They have gone without food for many days and Paul had to urge them to eat.
• Acts 27:35 “…he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.”
Isn’t that amazing? No mention of the storm, the loss of cargo, and the danger they went through. Paul gave thanks for the food.
• Why? Because God is fully in charge.
• Paul told them, “Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me…” (Acts 27:24) and assured me that all onboard will live.
• You see, despite all that they were going through, God was still in it.
• Throughout the ordeal, God is still in control.
• The ordeal was part of His permissive will. It will be the same for our lives today.
(2) God has a purpose in every storm, shipwreck, tragedy, disease, or whatever that comes upon His children.
• All these things do not necessarily come from God but they are used by God to bless and strengthen our faith.
• Chance, fate or luck plays no part in the life of the life of a Christian.
• There is a divine purpose for every thing that happens in our lives.
• For Paul, the ship-wreck at Malta became an opportunity to win that island to Christ.
• The blessings that come out of the trials and tribulations we experience may not become immediately obvious to us, but hold firm to the truth of Rom 8:28 and in God’s time, they will.
Very often, we have to look back to appreciate things better.
SOMETHING POSITIVE ALWAYS
When Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a lonely island he thought of both the good and the bad.
- He was cast onto a desolate island, but he was still alive, not drowned as all of his ship’s company was.
- He was separated from mankind, but he was not starving.
- He had no clothes, but he was in a hot climate where he didn’t need them.
- He was without means of defence, but he saw no wild animals.
- God had sent the sunken ship so near to the shore that he could get out of it all things necessary for his survival.
So he concluded that there can be no condition in the world so miserable that you find nothing positive for which you can to be thankful.
SOURCE: Steve Shepherd in "Thanksgiving"
God does not want us to lose faith in Him.
• We are challenged to give thanks in all circumstances, in order words to give thanks always.
• That’s a way to praise Him. One way to express praise to God is to give thanks to Him, because we are affirming His goodness in all kinds of circumstances.
• We’re telling Him, “You still a good God!”
Bernard of Clairvaux says giving thanks to God is the “perfume compound of the remembered benefits of God.”
• Ten lepers received their health; that was the benefit. Only one came back to give thanks to Jesus (Luke 17:17) - that was the perfume.
• A. W. Tozer says unremembered blessings are like dead flies that lie in the scent oil - they can become a fragrance of dead worship and bring a bad smell to a holy God. Remembered blessings - thankfulness for the Lord’s present favours and a rejoicing in His promised graces - become like a blend of myrrh, and aloes and cassia thus making forth an ingredient for a pleasant aroma of praise.
(3) Gratitude is a blessing to us!
Why do you think God wants us to express our gratitude?
• God needs our gratitude? No, because we need it.
• A. W. Tozer: “Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.”
There is a message on a church sign that reads:
“The more we thank God for what we have, the more we have to thank God for.”
The more we thank God, the more we see of His blessings in our lives.
A 4-year-old was standing on a kitchen chair pulled close to the wall, intensely staring at the familiar "Our Daily Bread" painting of the older man praying over a small loaf.
"What are you doing, honey?" the mom asked.
"Looking," she said with a catch in her voice.
Noticing tears in her eyes, the mom probed deeper. "What are you thinking?"
With a heartfelt sigh, she replied, "He doesn’t have any peanut butter."
Do you see the blessings of God in your life?
All happy people are grateful people. Ungrateful people cannot be happy.
• We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy.
• Be grateful and you will become a much happier person.
John Henry Jowett, a British preacher of an earlier generation, said this about gratitude: "Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic."
• It’s a vaccine – it can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled, discouraged spirit.
• It’s an antitoxin - it can prevent the affects of the poisons of cynicism, criticalness, and grumbling.
• It’s an antiseptic - a spirit of gratitude can soothe and heal the most troubled spirit.
Conclusion:
Someone wrote in Christianity Today many years ago:
Shall I thank God at this Thanksgiving?
Why was I born at this particular time in the history of the world?
Why was I born in a spotless delivery room in an American hospital instead of a steaming shelter in the dank jungle of the Amazon or a mud hut in Africa?
Why did I have the privilege of going to school with capable instructors while millions around the world, without a school book, sit or squat on a dirt floor listening to a missionary?
How does it happen that my children are tucked into warm beds at night with clean white sheets while millions of babies in the world will lie in cold rooms, many in their own filth and vomit?
Why can I sit down to a warm meal whenever I want to and eat too much when millions will know all of their lives the gnawing pangs of hunger?
Do I deserve to share in such wealth? Why me and not other millions?
Why was I born in a land I didn’t build, in a prosperity that I didn’t create and enjoy a freedom that I didn’t establish?
Why an American sitting comfortably in my own living room this Thanksgiving rather than an Indian squatting in the dark corner of some infested alley in Calcutta, shivering in the cold, or a Cambodian in the rubble of what used to be my home?
Do I deserve it? By what right do I have it?"
… Joel Gregory, "The Unlikely Thanker," Preaching Today, Tape No. 110.
So be thankful. Don’t take the gifts in your life for granted.
• Remember that we are impoverished without God.
• Whoever and wherever you are today, the good in your life outweighs the bad.
• You just need to train your eyes to see them.
BE THANKFUL
• Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.
• Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities to learn and help you to be humble.
• Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character.
• Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.
