I AM THANKFUL. PERIOD.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends. I truly do hope that you are
able to spend this day basking in fellowship, friendship and family. I have
found that even on this day of thanks we often can get so caught up in the
chaos of it that we completely forget the reason we do it (not to mention the
very dark day that follows every year).
We live in a society that often wants more. When we have the
phone we want, another comes out and we want a new one. We want new clothes,
more food, more money, new shows, and new movies. You name it. We usually want
it. We all do it, or have done it in the past- at least I have. But we have all we need in the Lord, don't we? All fulfillment can be found in Him.
And so the question is: how do we combat this greedy
lifestyle?
Giving thanks. “In everything give thanks; for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).
I believe that when we give thanks, attitudes change from
feeling like you deserve more than God has given you, to an attitude of
humility, realizing that you do not deserve a single thing that He has chosen
to bless you with. God is not obligated to give us things like a comfortable
bed, tasty food, or marriage. These are gifts given by a gracious heavenly
Father who simply desires to bless His children. “And my God shall supply all
your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Somehow we get it in our minds to doubt His ability to take
care of our needs, but “… if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today
is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not so much more clothe you,
O you of little faith” (Matt. 6:30)? We mean more to Him than the grass and the
flowers of the field and the doves that He makes sure to feed. Another passage
explains His care by describing a father. If his child asked him for bread, he
wouldn’t give him a stone (though I’m probably butchering that passage).
Our Father is going to take care of us.
For some of you it may actually be more difficult to be
thankful this year than others. Perhaps you’ve experienced a loss or heard some
bad news. You might not necessarily be in the mood to praise God and thank Him.
Perhaps you are even angry with Him for the things that have happened to you.
I want to tell you about a man that I once read about. He
was a good man, the best you would ever know. He loved God and served Him and
his life was full of the blessings of God. He was a wealthy man with a wife and
many children. He had nothing to complain about.
But then tragedy struck him. A
number of his employees were killed in a raid, a fire destroyed his sheep and
servants, and still even more servants were killed in another attack and camels
were taken. Then he heard news that his children had all died tragically from a
building caving in on them.
It didn’t end there. He suffered with boils and found no
encouragement in his wife. Even his friends had only negative words for him.
This man lost everything. If anyone should be able to feel
sorry for themselves, it’s this guy here. But in all this he still declared
“though He slay me, yet I will trust Him…” (Job 13:15).
It wasn’t because He was some godly man that he was able to
say these words in truth. It was because he knew that God was faithful, and because God is
faithful, He can be trusted in even the darkest of circumstances. With every hurdle or fear that comes our way, we can still trust Him.
I don’t know what your circumstances are. I don’t know what
heartache you’ve had to face, but I do know one thing: God is still good.
He will take care of your needs. He will not leave you. I encourage you to begin to think on things He has blessed you with. Just start somewhere- anywhere. Once you begin, I think you’ll find the number of items on your list to be innumerable.
All verses used here are from The Holy Bible: New King James Version
