Thanksgiving is Giving Thanks!

With Thanksgiving just past, it is good to take time to consider all for which we are thankful.  Typically, our family, our friends, our health and well-being, our home, our jobs and the “comforts of life” are at the top of our list.

Being a “people of faith”, we will recognize, acclaim and be grateful that all of these blessings are from God, tangible evidence of His love, grace and mercy. Hopefully, we will think of Him first, truly giving Him first place in our thanksgiving.

But when we give thanks to God for all He has done and all He is doing in our lives, do we “filter” our list, listing the “good” things in our lives while ignoring all the other “real” things that are also part of our lives.  Surely, there are circumstances, events, issues that we don’t, with honesty, want to also attribute to God and His plan for our lives.

How do we deal with those parts of the Bible that say such things as “Always be joyful. Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (I Thes. 5:18.)  Or “Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 5:20.)

Speaking only for myself, I have come to recognize, especially in the past few years, that my “giving thanks for all things” has fallen woefully short.  I can list several circumstances that I have had, or even now are now going through, and realize that “giving thanks” for these circumstances and situations hasn’t been in the forefront of my mind…or my heart.  Do I acknowledge that it is exactly through these unpleasant or challenging circumstances and situations that God is trying to reach me with what He wants me to learn and to hear what He wants me to hear? 

Herein lies the importance of giving thanks!  A prayer that I have come to pray is “Lord, I look to You to guide me and, with Your help, to follow You wherever You are guiding me, even if it’s on a road or to a place I would rather not go.  And Lord, help me to give You thanks for this journey while we are on this journey.”  I pray this way because in my moments of honesty, I must confess that I’m not really happy to be on this particular “journey”.  At the same time, I am praying that in living through these circumstances, I will recognize and accept the reality that these difficult times are really learning opportunities to increase my faith, to show my trust.  I want to be able to genuinely thank Him for these circumstances while I’m going through them, not waiting to thank Him once I am “out the other side” and only then realize what has happened.  I want to be like Joseph.  He didn’t wait until Pharoh had made him second ruler in the land to recognize that it was God’s hand on his life from beginning, include being the sold into slavery by his brothers, suffering servitude and years of unjust imprisonment.  In each one of these “disastrous” circumstances, Joseph recognized God’s hand and waited patiently for the manifestation of His grace.

A few days ago, I was reading a daily devotion that comes to me via email from the Christian Broadcasting Network.  It brought into focus the fact that God orders our circumstances to help us grow in our faith.  After all, we are still “sinners saved by grace” and a “work in progress”. My desire is to live each day to follow Jesus as His disciple.  The devotion served to remind me that my growth is not strictly within my own control, that I have the help that I need in the Person and the presence of the Holy Spirit of the Sovereign Lord.  So I pray and wait on the Lord, asking that His will to be done in my life as it is in heaven. We wait and we trust, and He teaches us what we need to learn.