Thankful to our Father: Thanksgiving Edition
Are you generally optimistic? Or is it more challenging for you to see the good, resulting in more general pessimism?
A few years ago, I was struggling to see the positive in anything. My attitude just kept getting worse.
We were two years into planting a church, and it seemed like nothing was going well. I kept going through the motions, but I was so discouraged. We ran into roadblock after roadblock. I knew the Lord had directed me to plant the church, so I remained faithful. But my spirit and attitude were taking a beating. I was not “giving thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18).
One day as I was listening to a sermon, the Lord connected the dots for me.
In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul addresses the topic of God’s wrath against those who are unrighteous because of their unbelief. Despite God’s attributes being evident through what He has created, he says, “they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” (Rom 1:21b, ESV)
In that moment, the Lord woke me up to the fact that, in focusing on the negative and refusing to give thanks, I was choosing not to walk in faith. I was not acknowledging God as the Sovereign, Good Father that He is. My circumstances and my ideas of how things should go had become larger than my trust in God as Sovereign and Good.
Jesus connected thankfulness to praising God through the story of the ten lepers who cried out to him for healing. When they saw that they were healed, only one came back to praise God—the Samaritan. He “fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” (Lk 17:16, ESV)
In His response, Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:17-19, NIV).
In saying these things, Jesus connected giving thanks to both praising (honoring) God and having faith.
The man’s gratitude was an expression of his faith that Jesus is God and that He was the source of his healing.
My lack of thanks during the challenging season of church planting was evidence that I was not acknowledging and honoring God as Sovereign. Failing to give thanks to God showed that I thought my plans were better than His. I wanted to be in control instead of honoring our Good Father as the One who is in control.
Whether or not you and I honor God by giving Him thanks doesn’t change who He is. His character remains the same “because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35c, NIV)
We are the ones who are affected when we do not give thanks.
Back in Romans 1, the Apostle Paul said that the result of failing to honor God as God and give thanks to Him was that “they became futile in their thinking.” (Romans 1:21) The word ‘futile’ means “devoid of force, truth, success, result… (it) refers to that which is in vain, futile, that which is without result or success. It refers to the unsuccessful attempt to do something or be something. If refers to that which does not measure up to that which it should be.” (Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Vol. 1, Romans, p. 32)
As I witnessed first-hand, when we don’t express gratitude to God, we are the ones who suffer and become weak and ineffectual. Refusing to give thanks to God only leads to further despair and defeat. It is evidence of a deficiency in our faith.
Dear Saints, this Thanksgiving weekend, I encourage you to check in with yourself. Does it feel easy or hard to praise God right now? Is there something in your life that makes it difficult to declare God’s goodness and love? Regardless of what is going on in your life, God remains Sovereign and Good. Giving thanks is the means to experience this reality because it changes our perspective and opens our eyes to see Him at work in and around us. Additionally, this makes you stronger and more effective.
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, ESV)