Thanksgiving. No, not the holiday ( but it is one of my favorites). Thanksgiving. What is it? According to Webster’s Dictionary it’s “the act of giving thanks; a prayer expressing gratitude.“ It’s interesting, that they would use the word prayer when defining thanksgiving.
The words “thanks” and “thanksgiving” are used all throughout The Psalms and Proverbs as well as in the New Testament text. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says “Be thankful in all circumstances,” meaning in all situations in life, good or bad, be thankful.
Doesn’t sound so hard right? But what happens when something tragic happens unexpectedly? What if you lost a loved one? Or what if you recently lost your job? What if you’re world just feels like you’re losing control? What then?
In Psalm 50:14, it says “offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving,” meaning make thanksgiving your sacrifice. How can both words be in the same sentence? You have gratitude and detriment intermingling here. Obviously, with sacrifice there is pain because you lose something, right? Immediately what comes to mind is the phrase “ blood, sweat and tears.” You may think of the words “ to lose” “ to be disadvantaged” or “victim.” For me, I think about giving up something of significance in exchange for something else. And usually that something else is of greater value. So if sacrifice means that pain is involved, essentially, what does it mean to offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving?
It’s in our pain, going to the altar and lifting our hands in reverence to God and uttering “Thank you,” even when it goes against our very nature.
I’ve been at that altar. There have been times where I’ve sobbed at the thought of thanking him. However, I had to fight through all the complaints I’ve mustered up and just say “God you’re good. Thank you.” With a broken, downtrodden, yet grateful heart, I’ve felt such a release of my burdens when I was able to thank God despite what my world looks like around me. Now remember, there’s was an exchange that happened here, right?
This sacrifice of thanking God brings freedom. It brings contentment. It brings my urge to control everything to a state of sweet surrender. And to a place of complete hope. I become more in tune with God because I see God for who he is despite my circumstances. Does that make sense?
Thanksgiving is easy when we are actually grateful for the GOOD that happens in our lives but how easy is it to thank God when things don’t go as planned? It’s not. That’s why it’s a sacrifice. It’s truly a sacrifice of praise, a sacrifice of your emotions and a sacrifice of your will, when you offer thanks to God in the midst of anguish. But God asks that we be “thankful in all things.” To look up at the sky and shout to the heavens “God thank you for -“( and you can fill in the rest). Why ? Because that means we are exchanging our worries, our doubts, our PAIN for the reassurance of God’s faithfulness. It means we TRUST that God will turn it ALL for good. For all those who love him.
In the book, “One Thousand Gifts,” author Ann Voskamp wrote something so powerful about thanksgiving.
“Thanksgiving – giving thanks in everything- is what prepares the way for salvation’s whole restoration. Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized in a life until that life realizes the need to give thanks. In everything? I would never experience the fullness of my salvation until I expressed the fullness of my thanks every day, and eucharisteo is elemental to living the saved life.”
(Side note: Eucharisteo is the greek word for thanksgiving)
In other words, we wouldn’t be able to understand the fullness of Jesus sacrifice on the cross without giving thanks to him. Ah, there’s that word sacrifice again. We wouldn’t know the true joy of salvation if we don’t humble ourselves to see God’s blueprint of redemption in our lives. His death ultimately restored our relationship with God, the Father. Jesus gave up his life for us because he loved us before we could even love him. Then he resurrected three days later and appeared to the apostles. “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by may proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
THEN, he ascended into heaven. If Jesus would have never died and rose again, then there would be no hope for us. The hope that we have is in him! That is the Gospel! We are saved from our sin and we can have joy knowing that someday we will be with him in heaven. We would have been eternally separated from a loving God without the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ! And that, my friends, is what we have to be thankful for.
God doesn’t want us to look at our present trouble and get stuck there. Getting stuck means being in a pit. Let’s be honest, a living hell. We turn our gaze onto ourselves instead of looking at God. We start to blame God, our situation, the people in it and even ourself for our current situation. We are left drained by all the things that didn’t go our way. Our negatives start to outweigh our positives. Our complaints start to silence the truth of God’s goodness. Eventually, we begin to doubt our faith and become ungrateful. This just leads to a prison of anger, bitterness, depression and isolation. Even worse, we soon start to fade away from God. Not because he’s left us, but because we’ve chosen to leave.
I am not saying all this to downplay your current situation. I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what is happening that is consuming your life or your thoughts or your heart right now, but I know if you’re reading this blog that you’re alive. You still have air in your lungs. And that means that there’s still purpose! That heart of yours that is beating at this very moment, is so precious to the Father, that he wants to use it, IN SPITE of your circumstances.
My church recently taught a series on taking a leap of faith in our life. Whether that be in our finances, jobs, in your marriages, whatever it is that God is leading us to do, we were asked to take that leap and trust God for the rest. The series circled around this specific verse in scripture.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
We can have hope. We may not see what’s ahead or what God is doing but we can have hope because we know who our God is.
This reminded me of what Chrystal Hurst Evans wrote in her book called “She’s Still There.” She identifies how to respond to the frustrations in life. She simply encourages her readers to celebrate the good things. To celebrate even the small things. No matter how insignificant they may be, they’re significant and are a blessing to God. She writes,
“Celebration is a tool that helps you continue to hope, and is it through hope that we stay open to possibility. Hope is the belief that things will work out for the better. It is a driving force that keeps us going even when things look dim. When you stop celebrating the important moments of your life, you suffocate hope and close yourself off to the very things you desire.”
This woman is on point! Now mix hopefulness and thankfulness together and you have a positive new outlook on things. These things take practice – and yes, sacrifice. We sacrifice control, our negative thinking, and our way and put them in the hands of a God who will take care of it. ALL OF IT. We thank him in advance for what’s to come.
We can rest assure that our current circumstance is temporary. That’s right, it won’t last long (although it seems like forever). We can rest assure that something good will prevail. Why? Because our Father is a good, good father (Thanks Chris Tomlin for getting that song stuck in my head).
This is something I am putting into practice. Instead of looking at the negatives, God has been asking me to focus on the GOOD things in my life. And when I can’t seem to find anything that is good, I can look to him who is the epitome of GOOD. Start practicing thankfulness. Jot down in a journal everything you are thankful for. Then at the end of the week, review it and give thanks to God for all the blessings in your life. I’m sure there will be more than one thing on your list. It can be “I am thankful for my husband,” to “ I am thankful that my friend gave me a handful of snicker bars,” ( My friend really did do that ).
Here is some comfort. In James 1: 2-4 it reads “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
We can count it ALL joy when we go through hard things because it brings us closer to the Father’s heart. We become more and more like his precious son Jesus, WHO IS PERFECT AND COMPLETE AND LACKS NOTHING.
Will you practice being thankful today?
