Good Morning,
The following proclamation was made by Governor Bradford in 1623, 3 years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth;
"To all ye Pilgrims,
Inasmuch as the great father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings."
This Thursday is Thanksgiving, one day in which we, like those early Pilgrims, set aside time in our busy schedules to give thanks to God. Though there is nothing wrong with that, the word of God tells us that thanksgiving should be a continual, daily, attitude.
Ephesians 5:19,20 tells Christians to "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Paul’s main subject here is PRAISE, and THANKSGIVING. Notice the other important words in these passages: ALWAYS, CONTINUALLY, and IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. It sounds as if Paul is talking about a church service here, especially in Ephesians. "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart..." But he isn’t. He is talking about a continual attitude for Christians - an attitude of the heart, and about how we are to be to each other. But how, you may wonder, can we have this attitude continually, especially "in all circumstances"? I believe the answer lies in our perspective of thanksgiving. We need the proper perspective. To be thankful in all circumstances, we need a proper perspective of our circumstances and of our God. Only then we will be able to give thanks to the Lord always.
Rudyard Kipling was a great writer and poet whose writings we have all enjoyed. Unlike many writers of old, Kipling was one of the few who had opportunity to enjoy his success while he lived. He also made a great deal of money at his trade.
One time a newspaper reporter came up to him and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word; Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that."
The reporter cynically reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, "Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words." Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks."
He’s right! The word thanks is certainly a hundred dollar word. In fact, I would say it is more like a million dollar word. It’s one word that is too seldom heard, too rarely spoken, and too often forgotten. If we would all adopt an attitude of thanksgiving into our lives - our lives would be changed. We would savor each day.
In Luke 17 we read about ten men who were healed by Jesus of their leprosy. Out of those ten men only one came back to give thanks, and Jesus said, "Where are the other nine?" He was the only one willing to take time to go back and say "thank you." Because of that Jesus said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
We too are made whole by our thanksgiving. Psychologists today tell us that sincere gratitude, thanksgiving, is the healthiest of all human emotions. Hans Selye, who is considered the father of stress studies, has said that gratitude produces more positive emotional energy than any other attitude in life. And a thankful heart will endear others to us and us to others for, you see, thanksgiving is not only good for the giver but also good for the receiver.
God appreciates our thanksgiving. It lifts Him up and it glorifies Him, and thanksgiving endears him to us. It draws us closer. If we are not grateful, if we do not express our thanksgiving, then it can have the opposite affect. In Romans 1:21 Paul says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."
This passage seems to imply that people who are ungrateful to God will soon fall away - their hearts will become hardened. Here we see pride keeping people from worshipping God and being thankful.
I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in ALL circumstances." Ephesians 5:20 says, "always giving thanks." You may think that surely Paul made a mistake, or even that this was easy for him to say. But it wasn’t. Paul suffered from some kind of very difficult problem that he called a thorn in the flesh. He also had been run out of town, beaten, whipped, imprisoned, betrayed by friends, naked, cold, hungry shipwrecked, and stoned because of his faith. Yet, Paul never stopped giving thanks.
Paul said several things that really show he had the proper perspective of the burdens of life...
*"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us..." Romans 8:18
*"That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong..." 2 Corinthians 12:10
*"Now I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel..." Phil 1:12
In our weakness God can make us strong. When we are struggling God is able to work in our lives. He helps us through times that we could have never faced on our own.
The Philippian Jailer was ready to take his life because an earthquake freed his prisoners but what saved him was the attitude of Peter and Silas during their difficult imprisonment. They were singing and praising God, even though they were in chains. But, they knew God and that he would help them through. Because of their joy the jailer and all his household became Christians.
When the Israelites focused on what they didn’t have, they failed to see ALL that they DID have. We are constantly adding to our prayer list but more than anything we should be adding to our praise list. I am certain that we have all had some difficult times, maybe even times that we have despaired even of life itself. Yet, if we really look at all the benefits of life, I think we will find that its good to be alive.
Paul says we are to "give thanks in all circumstances BECAUSE this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." This is God’s will for us. And he knows that if we keep a grateful heart our lives will be changed.
Paul says in II Corinthians 4:8, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed...For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen."
Henry Frost served for many years as a missionary to China. In his journal he wrote of a very difficult time in his life. He says, "I had received sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed BUT the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, BUT the darkness only deepened. Then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these
words: ’TRY THANKSGIVING.’ I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return.
Yes the Psalmist was right, ’It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."
In Christ,
With a grateful heart,
Brown
