Today is Thanksgiving, a day our government gives us to get
together and think about all the things we can be thankful for. It’s a day for
many of us filled with family, big meals, football and hockey games and church,
even though it’s a Monday. Thanksgiving and gratitude are big themes in the
Bible. Over and over again we’re called to have grateful hearts, to be thankful
to God in all circumstances. Our verses today are not a one off, but part of a
consistent message that this is who we are called to be as children of God and followers
of Jesus. Here’s just a few passages that call us to be thankful, Psalm 100:4 “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his
courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” 1 Chronicles 16:4 “He appointed some of the Levites to minister
before the ark of the Lord, to
extol, thank, and praise the Lord,
the God of Israel.”
This morning we’re going to briefly
reflect on verses 16-18 “Be joyful always, pray
continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus.” As followers of
Jesus, these three calls on our lives shape who we are and how we walk through
life. The first call to our hearts is to be
joyful always. Paul’s not speaking to just to individuals,
but to the entire church in Thessalonica. We’re all called to rejoice always. Not just
once in a while, or only in good times, but always. How is it possible to
experience joy when things are hard, when there’s loss and disappointment and
hurt? It’s not normal or natural to most people today. It takes a deep trust in God.
When
we believe that God is in control of the present and the future,
we’re able to experience joy because we know that God is always with us, that
God became human in Jesus and knows the suffering and hurt of life, as well as
the celebrations and joy in life. Jesus embraces suffering, even suffering on
the cross, so that we can experience the hope and peace which leads to joy
because we know that Jesus will use the hard times to help us be more like him
and use us to be a blessing and hope for others.
The second call to our heart is to pray continually. Paul does not mean we should be in a prayer meeting
all day long. He’s calling us to go through our days with an awareness
that God is always with us in everything that we’re doing. It’s like going
through your day with a wonderful friend always beside you, getting involved in
the things that you’re doing. It’s natural to just talk about the stuff you’re
doing, sharing what you think and feel with each other, and sometimes just
being with each other quietly, but just being together is good. My sons and I
can just sit there and grunt and we know what’s going on, my wife and daughters
don’t usually get it, but that’s ok, because we all talk with God differently.
But there’s a spirit of thankfulness in these types of relationships, even if
you don’t say the words, “Thank you.”
Fredrick Beuchner writes, “According to
Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying is to keep at it. The
images he uses to explain this are all rather comic, as though he thought it
was rather comic to have to explain it at all. He says God is like a friend you
go to borrow bread from at midnight. The friend tells you in effect to drop
dead, but you go on knocking anyway until finally he gives you what you want so
he can go back to bed again (Luke 11:5-8). Or God is like a crooked judge who
refuses to hear the case of a certain poor widow, presumably because he knows
there's nothing much in it for him. But she keeps on hounding him until finally
he hears her case just to get her out of his hair (Luke 18:1-8). Even a
stinker, Jesus says, won't give his own child a black eye when the child asks
for peanut butter and jelly, so how all the more will God when his children...
(Matthew 7:9-11)?”
The third call on our heart is to give thanks in all circumstances. I was thinking about how often I say ‘Thank you’
to people and I noticed that usually it’s only after I’ve received something
from them, whether it’s help or a gift or something else. I normally don’t give
thanks when someone’s give me a hard time or if I’ve had to give someone
something, especially if it’s something I really want to keep for myself. I
don’t give thanks for pain, even though pain is a sign that something’s wrong
and needs addressing. Yet pain helps us deal with stuff before it gets worse. Doctor
Paul Brand reminds us that pain is a gift that protects our bodies from further
harm as it leads us to find healing. A counsellor friend back in Montreal says
it’s the same emotionally, that emotional hurt is a sign that something’s not
right and it’s time to get help, from God and those God has placed in our lives
to walk with us through the good and hard times. The church is Jesus’ gift, a
place where sisters and brothers come together for each other.
Pain can help us get closer to God, teaching us trust. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the
comfort we ourselves receive from God.” I’ve
learnt that the hard times in my life have helped me to better understand the
hard times others go through, they’ve made me kinder, gentler and more
compassionate towards others. This has helped me to give thanks in all
circumstances, knowing that God is there and can use it to bless others and
give us a glimpse of heaven through the comfort we experience from God through
the Holy Spirit and our church family.
We
thank God, because through thanksgiving we receive even more blessings.
When we thank God, we remember the things he’s done for us and feel glad. When
we give thanks, we find security and peace of mind and we see what we have
instead of what we don’t have. Giving thanks opens our hearts to trust God
more, so that we’re ready for new blessings. In gratitude, we savor life’s
goodness, and therefore live to the fullest. Today, many of us will sit down to a
tasty dinner of turkey with all the trimmings, we already ate an amazing
breakfast. Take time to revel in each flavor, and to share your joy and delight
with others. Gratitude’s about stopping to enjoy, taste, and delight in the
goodness of life. And it’s sharing our joy with God, as well as with our
neighbors. I love how Ann Voskamp puts it, “At
the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life
that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the
blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing.”
To thank God in all
circumstances is to be able to see God working in each and every situation
of our lives so that his will is done. The three commands of joy, prayer and
giving thanks stand at the center of God’s plan for us, to shape us into who
he’s calling us to be. So this Thanksgiving, may you experience the joy of
knowing the Holy Spirit is with you, may you be aware of his presence and may
you give thanks for our faithful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and all his
blessings and be his blessing wherever you are.
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