"Thanks The Lord Anyways!"

-Needless to say, I am NOT feeling very thankful at all!

→Yet God has written in His word, that I need to THANK THE LORD ANYWAYS!

-To which I reply, “Really!?” ☺

But God’s Word is God’s Word! There are no options, so we must obey it…

→And I have to learn to THANK THE LORD ANYWAYS!!!

I wonder…

That must have been how the Pilgrims must have felt in that first year.

-Expecting freedom and that things would get better for them…

-Yet, disappointments and loss were exacted upon them…

→But they chose to THANK THE LORD ANYWAYS!!!

• But their experiences...

• Mine with my furnace…

• And yours with the variety of things you face day to day…

Each of them prove to us that DISAPPOINTMENTS ARE INEVITABLE, BUT DISCOURAGEMENT IS A CHOICE!!

→So is THANKSGIVING - IT IS A CHOICE!

This is exactly what we learn here in the book of Habakkuk…

The prophet decided to do the very same thing we are hearing here – to THANK THE LORD ANYWAYS!

So in this, we come to know Habakkuk as the prophet who vowed to be THANKFUL in hard times.

-He loved and trusted God enough to thank Him in distress.

-Therefore, modeling for us an attitude that THANKS THE LORD ANYWAYS!

• Tell me, who here needs to learn to be thankful this morning?

• Who needs to get a grip on choosing to be thankful instead of remorseful or discouraged?

I Thessalonians 5:18 says, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus!”

The BIG QUESTION is…”How can one be thankful when things are difficult??”

Well, let’s try to figure this out together by looking into the Scriptures…

Habakkuk begins to give us a glimpse of the secret to THANKSFULNESS when he talks about…

POINT ONE: A LACK OF PROVISION

Now, keep in mind that…

→When the provision of God changes – we need to be THANKFUL that God is unchanging!

Habakkuk 3:17 – Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, thought the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls…

Wow! There isn’t much encouragement or hope described here in this verse…

-But to sum it up… NOTHING seems to be going in a positive direction – only in the bad!

• Let me ask you, have you ever had “one of those days?”

• For some, maybe it has been a week, a month, a year or even years for you?

Needless to say, you might be able to identify with the feelings of loss and that nothing has been going right for you…

Yet, we are reminded of I Thessalonians 5:18 again that says, “in everything give thanks!”

-And we are stunned at the command in such circumstances…

-And we are challenged in our faith by it once again…

It doesn’t seem to be fitting for the circumstance.

It doesn’t feel right or make sense considering what you are facing.