Thanks Giving

“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I Thessalonians 5:18

Have you ever had someone quote that verse to you right when you are in the middle of a dreadful time and giving thanks is the last thing on your mind? It’s almost as bad as when they quote Romans 8:28 to you. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Sometimes you just want to smack the person, friend or not, and tell them how you feel. Maybe you could say, “It doesn’t feel good. How can it be good?” Or maybe, “I don’t feel thankful. How can I give thanks?”

A few years ago I was in the middle of what seemed to be the worst two years of my life. I was hurting so badly inside it seemed as if my pain must be visible to everyone who saw me. That first Christmas, one of my sisters gave me the book, “Uninvited”, by Lisa TerKeurst. I had no interest in reading the book but found myself drawn into Lisa’s stories. At one point in the book, she made the claim that we need to be able to say three things about God.

“God is good.” Check. Easy. Wasn’t that something we were taught in Sunday School?

“God is good to me.” Wait a minute! “That” I definitely was NOT feeling!

I was fine with Lisa’s number one statement about God and actually agreed that number three was reasonable. “Let God be God.” But her number two statement was not so easy to accept. But how could I let God be God if I didn’t agree that He was good to me? It took some time for me to accept that, indeed, God is good to me. I gradually realized that God’s goodness and my feelings didn’t have to coincide. God’s goodness is an absolute truth. While my feelings are real, they are not always based on God’s truth. They are based on what is happening to me and around me, but they cannot contradict absolute truth.

God’s goodness is part of His character. He is good. And He is good to me. Always. What He knows is good for me is not always something that will make me “feel” good. A parent who takes their child to the dentist is being good to their child, even though the child may not feel the parent is being good. So my heavenly Father allows difficulties at times into my life that don’t feel good but are things that He knows He can and will use for my good in ways I could never imagine.

During those two dreadful years I found myself accepting in my heart some things about God that I thought I knew. God is the one and only sovereign. Even when things look like they are in chaos, God is totally in control. And God is absolutely good, and absolutely good to me, even when life for me does not feel good.

When we think we know something in our minds, life has a way of testing us to see if we truly believe what we say. These truths about God’s sovereignty and His goodness were pushed from my mind to my heart because of the same difficult time for which I thought I could never be thankful. Should I have given thanks during that time? It didn’t feel good, and I didn’t feel grateful. But God was working all things even then for my good. Giving thanks is an act of obedience, not an act of feeling. “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will…”

When Scripture tells us to give thanks in all things, God knows exactly what He is asking of us. Do we trust Him enough to be grateful to Him even when things don’t feel good? Do we trust His goodness enough to know that even when life hurts, our Father is looking out for us and providing His presence and His peace for us? Are we able to give thanks to Him, knowing that in His Sovereignty, He will work even the hardest things we face somehow for our good? This is what “thanks giving” is about. Giving thanks to the One who knows far more than we do. Giving thanks to the One who is our source. Giving thanks to the One who loves us with an everlasting love.

May you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving Day. More importantly, may you find yourself daily, in all things, giving thanks. After all, “thanks giving” is not just a day. It is a way of life.

“In everything give thanks…”