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In
Everything Give Thanks |
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A Pocket Paper Robert J.
Morgan Rejoice always, Pray without
ceasing, In everything give
thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 *** For you or me, it would have been as if our car had been stolen. For Mrs. Tendai, living in Africa’s impoverished wastelands, it was her donkey. It went missing right at harvest time, and Mrs. Tendai searched for it high and low. She even reported the loss to the local police, but they were unable to help. She made it a matter of prayer and left it in the Lord’s hands, which was all she knew to do. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tendai faced another problem. Due to a lack of good seed, fertilizer, and rainfall, her crops had been meager and her harvest small. She had very little money for food, and she soon found herself praying more about her daily bread than about her missing donkey. She was worried about feeding her children; so she made it a matter of prayer and left it in the Lord’s hands, which was all she knew to do. One morning soon thereafter, Mrs. Tendai walked out of her hut and there was her donkey, standing there with 100 pounds of grain on his back. She wasn’t sure what to do about it, because while she was glad to have her donkey back, she didn’t want to take someone else’s grain. But eventually the story was pieced together. A thief had stolen the donkey and was using it on his farm. One night after grinding his corn, he went to the beer hall to drink, leaving his donkey, burdened by the sack of grain, outside. The donkey realized he was close to home, and so he decided to return to where he would be cared for. The thief, wishing to remain anonymous, didn’t want to come claiming his grain; and so Mrs. Tendai was able to feed her family. Two disappointments became a pair of blessings as God answered both prayers in an unusual way.[1] And that’s why the Bible says: In
everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. This verse brings out two elements of a thankful spirit Thanksgiving is Restorative to the Soul First, thanksgiving is restorative to the soul. The writer of Psalm 23 once claimed about the Lord, “He restores my soul.” The implication is that our souls get out of whack. From time to time, our emotions get out of kilter. In the last part of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul is telling us how to keep our emotions and our spirits in a healthy state. Look at the extended paragraph: Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always peruse what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely…. (vv. 14-23). This is a recipe for mental and spiritual health, and right in the middle of it is this admonition to give thanks for all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I want to suggest that a thankful attitude is the opposite of and the cure for three different emotional ailments. First, depression.
After all, what is depression or discouragement except for the total
collapse of thanksgiving in your life?
Several years ago, I had a speaking engagement near Winona Lake,
Indiana; and I took some time off to visit the home of Billy Sunday who loved
there. He was a famous baseball
player who became a world-renowned evangelist, the “Billy Graham”
of his day. Billy was happily
married to a woman named Helen, who was known affectionately as
“Ma” Sunday. On November 19, 1935, Billy suffered a heart attack and he
died suddenly in his wife’s arms.
The two were deeply in love, and they were life-partners together in
the Lord’s work; and “Ma” Sunday was devastated. In one moment, she felt she had lost
both her husband and her life’s work; and she felt herself spiraling
down into depression. Sometime later, a group of
Christians in Buffalo, New York, approached her, asking her to speak at a
special service they were planning in Buffalo to honor her husband. At first, she didn’t think she
could speak at all; but then she developed an idea for her talk. She entitled it: “Things I’m Thankful
For.” She developed a long
list of thanksgiving items, and she got up to speak. This is the way she began: Folks, it’s surprising how many things God can
reveal to you to be thankful for, if you really want to know and ask Him to
help you. I had no idea there
were so many! But when I prayed
and asked God to help me write them down, they came into my mind one after
the other—and the very first one was: if Billy had to go, oh, how thankful I
was to God Almighty that He called him away in an instant…. He just cried out to me,
“I’m getting dizzy, Ma!” and he was gone! How wonderful to be here one second,
and up in heaven the next second!
Never knowing any real pain or any real suffering of that type—I
think God was so good to take Billy that way, and I thank him for it.” And she went on to list a large number of items that had come to her mind as objects of praise and thanksgiving; and it lifted her depression and released her for a life of continued usefulness and service. Thanksgiving is the corrective for depression. It’s also the opposite of disgruntlement and discontent. It’s very easy for us to become disgruntled and discontent with various factors in our lives; but the other day I read something I’d like to pass on to you. A man wrote: I am thankful: Ø For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat. Ø For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that I have freedom of speech. Ø For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive. Ø For the teenager who is not doing dishes but is watching TV, because that means he is at home and not on the streets. Ø For the taxes that I pay, because it means that I’m employed. Ø For the lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home. Ø For weariness at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard. Ø For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation[2] Thanksgiving is also the opposite of anxiety. We learn this by noticing two
important little words in Philippians 4:6: Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. When her children were rebelling against the Lord, Ruth Bell Graham found herself occasionally torn apart by worry. One night while abroad, she awoke suddenly in the middle of the night worrying about her son. A current of worry surged through her like an electric shock. She lay in bed and tried to pray, but she suffered from galloping anxiety, one fear piling upon another. She looked at the clock and it was around three o’clock. She was exhausted, yet she knew she would be unable to go back to sleep. Suddenly the Lord seemed to say to her, "Quit studying the problems and start studying the promises." She turned on the light, got out her Bible, and the first verses that came to her were these, Philippians 4:6-7. As she read those words, she suddenly realized that the missing ingredient in her prayers had been thanksgiving. "...in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." She put down her Bible and spent time worshipping God for who and what He is. She later wrote, "I began to thank God for giving me this one I loved so dearly in the first place. I even thanked him for the difficult spots which had taught me so much. And you know what happened? It was as if someone turned on the light in my mind and heart, and the little fears and worries that had been nibbling away in the darkness like mice and cockroaches hurriedly scuttled for cover. That was when I learned that worship and worry cannot live in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive." So thanksgiving is opposite of and the corrective to depression, discontent, anxiety—and, for that matter, a host of other mental and emotional maladies. But here’s the question. Is this just an irrational Pollyanna, head-in-the-sand response to life? Does it make sense to be thankful when a child is away from the Lord, or when we have health problems, financial problems, or other kinds of problems? Thanksgiving is Rational to the Mind Yes, it does. Thanksgiving is not only restorative to the soul but it is rational to the mind. It is logical and thoughtful and sane and sensible. It’s not a matter of wishful thinking, but of clear and straightforward thinking. Notice two things about 1 Thessalonians 5:18. First, this verse does not say: For everything give thanks. The Lord isn’t telling us to be thankful for the cancer or for the rebellion or for the tragedy. The preposition is in all things. In the midst of all things, we still have a basis for thanksgiving. Second, that basis is found in the overcoming,
overarching, overruling will of God.
Look at this verse again: In everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. There are two ways of interpreting
that. It might mean: It
is God’s will for you to give thanks in all things. Or it might mean: You
can give thanks for all things because those things represent the will of God
for you in Christ Jesus. Technically as a matter of biblical exegesis, only one of those interpretations is correct; but in practical terms both of those statements are true in terms of their applications and implications. It is God’s will for us to give thanks in every circumstance in life, because God is turning every circumstance in life to our good and using them to fulfill His will for us. This verse could be considered the flip side of Romans 8:28. Just as a coin has two sides, so the truths of God’s Word have two sides. There is the command side and there is the promise side. The promise side is Romans 8:28: For
we know that God works all things for good for those who love Him and are
called according to His purpose. The command side is 1 Thessalonians 5:18: In
everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you. In its comment on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, The Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it
this way: The fact that God works everything together for good to those who
love Him (Romans 8:28) is the basis for this entreaty. This fact has undergirded all the saints of all the ages. William Law, the 18th century Christian writer, put it this way: If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it to a blessing. Could you, therefore, work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit, for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness.[3] Some time ago, I visited Normandy and toured the beaches where Allied troops began their invasion of Nazi Europe during World War II, and I saw the bomb craters that pockmarked the ground. It reminded me of something I recently read about another set of bomb craters from another war. In his book, Church Planting Movements, David Garrison says that along the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail in Vietnam, the fields are peaceful now, but the landscape is still pockmarked with muddy ponds. He quotes a Cambodian Christian who said this: “Those are bomb craters made by your American airplanes during the war. Last Easter, we baptized 70 new believers in that pond.”[4] This represents the reversing effect of redemption. Do you remember in the children’s story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, how it was winter in Narnia. Always winter and never Christmas. The evil witch had cast a spell over the land, and it was always dark and cold and snowy and frozen; everything was ice-covered. The first signs that the great lion, Aslan, had returned to Narnia is that the ice sickles began to drip, the snow began to melt, the sun began to break through the clouds, and the land began to thaw. The great Lion began to reverse things. This is the reversing effect of redemption. Satan had brought about sin and pain and death and darkness; and when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave, He triggered a reversal of fortunes. Out of sin came forgiveness. Out of death came life. Out of the tomb came the resurrection. Out of despair came hope. Out of sorrow came joy. Out of pain comes praise. Out of darkness comes light. And when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we receive Him as our Savior and Lord and we love Him and are called according to His purpose, we are redeemed, and we have the unfailing promise—God’s Guarantee—that all our situations and circumstances in life will be reversed as needed, that all things will work together for our good and for His glory. And because of that, it is rational and sensible and logical to be thankful in all things; “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Let me close by telling you how this worked out in the life of the father of one of my college friends. I’ve spoken before about a former college hall mate of mine at Columbia Bible College, Chet Bitterman, who was kidnapped and murdered. He was a Wycliffe missionary in Colombia, South America; and he was seized by guerrillas who broke into his home on January 19, 1981, in full view of his terrified wife and children. Later his body was found in an abandoned van. At the time of his kidnapping, the news was quickly transmitted to Wycliffe headquarters by shortwave radio and by phone to the Bitterman home in Pennsylvania. As Chet’s father, Chester Allen Bitterman, listened in stunned silence, he scratched notes on the pad before him: Radio message … guest house in Bogotá broken into … radio equipment taken … Chet hostage? As you can imagine, he was engulfed by a wave of depression and anger, and he stormed through the day in a rage—pacing, stalking, scheming, feeling like a bomb ready to explode. He visualized leading a commando force, tearing through the jungle to snatch his son from the hands of the thugs who held him. A portion of his rage was also directed toward God, and when Bitterman tried to pray, all that emerged were prayers of anger, hate, and vengeance. But then, this verse, long ago memorized, appeared uninvited in his mind: … in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. At first, the verse sounded like nonsense to Mr. Bitterman. “Paul never had a hostage son,” he told himself. “It’s absurd to give thanks in a time like this.” But the verse came again: In everything give thanks. … Then again. And again. Bitterman fought the verse with all his might, arguing and resisting. But he could not evade it: … for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Finally, he fell to his knees in desperation and began sobbing, feeling in his heart he would never see Chet again. The hours passed. He prayed and pondered and wept; and slowly, very slowly, his heart changed. He began to sense blessings unrecognized, began to clasp a divine hand, began to grasp the power of prayer. And it was that verses that strengthened and sustained Mr. Bitterman through the long days and nights that followed. None of us knows what we’ll face from day to day in this life; but we do know God’s commandments—the secrets of the sunny soul: Rejoice always, Pray without
ceasing, In everything give
thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Copyright StatementWe grant permission for any edition of The Pocket Paper to be photocopied for use in a local congregation or classroom, provided no more than 1,000 copies are made, the material is distributed free, and the copies include the notice: "Copyright (year) The Donelson Fellowship."For any other use, advance permission must be obtained from The Donelson Fellowship church office. |
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[1] This story, related by a missionary named Donna in Eastern and Southern Africa, is told in Voices of the Faithful: Inspiring Stories of Courage from Christians Serving Around the World with Beth Moore and Friends…, Kim P. Davis, compiling Editor (Brentwood, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2005), p. 97.
[2] Quoted by D. A. Benton in Executive Charisma (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), p. 53.
[3] William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966), p. 173.
[4] David Garrison, Church Planting Movements (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2004), p. 74.