In everything give thanks

Many people I expect may remember from their childhood, having said something unappreciative about a food item or meal, being told: ‘don’t you know there are thousands of starving people in the world?’ or something like that. I can say for myself, those sort of reminders never made me feel more grateful for the food, or able to enjoy it more, only that it was clear I was going to have to eat at least some of it if I wasn’t prepared to make a scene.

I am not a naturally thankful person. I do not think of myself as ungrateful, but thanks is something I often forget – possibly because I am an inquisitive and thoughtful person; I am too busy analysing and theorising and looking for the next thing to simply be thankful for what I have. But also I am a critical person; I find faults.

The New Testament makes some big statements about thanks.

‘In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Admittedly, that is not the only command in the passage. ‘Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.’ Those also precede the thanks part.

But – the will of God concerning you?

For me the above scripture is an important reminder that the purposes of God in my life do not primarily concern my circumstances. The right attitude, in any circumstances, fulfils the will of God for me. And a large part of the right attitude in any circumstances, is thankfulness.

How often do our prayers consist of requests concerning things we want to happen, or not to happen? But the will of God can be fulfilled through such a broad range of paths which our life might take – if not, indeed, through any path – that pursuing our own desires or objectives may be missing the point.

‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.’ (Romans 8:28)

And his purpose? In large part, that we are thankful.

We see in Romans 8:28 above that as we are thankful, thereby walking in his purpose – ‘the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you’ – the ‘working together’ of whatever we are going through even changes direction (though perhaps directed from the beginning in the foreknowledge of God). As we give thanks, we sanctify our circumstances as an offering to God.

‘For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.’ (1 Timothy 4:4-5)

Being sanctified – set apart to God by prayer and thanksgiving – I believe God takes particular ownership of the circumstances we have offered to him, to show them as his own work, and to make them express his goodness and his deep love and compassion toward us. Praise God!

Our thanks is a statement of faith: that we believe, no matter what we are going through, that God is able to make it work for good; if not always presently, then eternally, which is far greater good than any which can be received in this life only.

‘For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.’ (Romans 8:18)

But if our thanks can affect and re-purpose our circumstances by the hand of God, to make them work for good – so I believe also our thanks has a powerful effect on ourselves as well. This touches on other realms of the truth which are a world in themselves, so I will try to keep this particular expression of those things focused on thanks.

‘The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.’ (Luke 11:34-35)

I believe in the above scripture, Jesus is not primarily speaking about our physical sight; he is speaking about how we ‘see things’ – our attitude, or perspective. He is saying that, just as we can only sense light through our eyes, and any fault in our eyes affects everything we see – so our whole experience of life passes through our attitudes and perspective. What we experience is changed by ‘how we see it’.

We must be ‘transformed by the renewing of our mind’ (Romans 12:2) so that we see things truly as they really are: always exceedingly better than anything we can ask or think, if only the truth be known. Because God is able and desires to make it so. ‘Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ (1 Peter 1:6)

If we are inclined to see things in a ‘negative light’, then it is difficult for anything or anyone to help us. Because, rather than sanctifying and offering our situation to God by thanksgiving, knowing that he can and will make good of it, more than any pain or misfortune we might temporarily experience – instead we take a ‘jaded view’ of things, showing a belief that what we experience is likely to cause us harm and to turn out bad. That is not an attitude of faith in the one ‘in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.’ (Ephesians 1:11-12)

(Notice how many of our common sayings equate our attitude or perspective with ‘sight’: ‘a jaded view’, ‘a positive light’, ‘how do you see this?’, ‘I take a dim view of that’, etc. This, I believe, is also what Jesus mainly means by sight, or ‘thine eye’, in Luke 11.)

I believe also that, as we learn to receive our circumstances with thanksgiving, our eyes are opened to see how God is blessing us through, or in spite of, those very things we are experiencing. And as we see more and more the good in our situation which may have seemed only bad – we become more and more thankful!

‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.’ (Matthew 134:12)

By our thanksgiving, Jesus heals our sight – our perspective on life. And as we begin to see clearly, we see more and more how much we have to be thankful for. The goodness of God in our lives, which was there all along, is revealed. And things do actually get better and better, working more and more for our good as our thankfulness sanctifies our circumstances to God as the vehicle of his will, and as we proclaim by faith his goodness in our circumstances by thanksgiving.

Praise God, eternally and forever, whose unimaginable kindness and goodness will overflow and break through more and more for ever and ever, which no being, man or any other is able to prevent.

Amen, and amen.