Why be Thankful?

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

               As we approach Thanksgiving Day, it is appropriate for us to ask the question, why should we be thankful?

               Thankfulness is not a natural aptitude for us. It is far more natural to take the blessings of life for granted or as our right. We can fall into the mindset that the blessings that we enjoy are what we deserve. Afterall, that is what the TV commercials tell us. You deserve a new iPhone or you deserve a break today. When we focus on our abilities and our efforts we tend to see the outcome as our right. When we focus on our rights, we tend to expect good things to come our way. Being thankful goes against our natural grain of thinking.

               Paul told the Thessalonians that being thankful was God’s will for their lives. Multiple times in the book of Psalms we are instructed to give thanks to the Lord. Why is being thankful important?

               First and foremost, being thankful reminds us that everything we have and everything we do is a gift from God’s hand.

               As Moses was preparing the people of Israel to enter the Promised Land, he gave them a warning about not being thankful.

Deuteronomy 8:6-18 (NIV)

Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

 

               Moses’ warning is a warning that needs to be reiterated today over and over again. We have placed our trust in our own efforts and in our own progress and we have forgotten the Lord in the process. The reason that we are not thankful is because we believe we have earned everything we have. But we are wrong, extremely wrong. None of us chose our talents and abilities, even though we may have cultivated them. Even the cultivation of our talents and abilities was shaped by circumstances that we had no control over. No matter how “successful” a person has become, their success is a gift from God.

               Why should we be thankful? Because all of life is a gift. The very air that we breathe is a gift from God. The food we eat comes from his hand. He created it in the first place. Our physical bodies are a gift from God. He created us unique in the world; created in his image to reflect his glory into our world. Our ability to take the raw resources of this earth and turn them into good things is a gift from God. He gave us both the raw materials and the capacity to see the potential.

               Why should we be thankful? Because God loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world to rescue us from our selfishness and pride. He came, not to make our lives better, but to restore the image of God within us.

               Why should we be thankful? Because God had the right to remove his blessing from us, but he didn’t. God had the right to wipe humanity off the face of the earth, but he chose to redeem us instead. God had the right to make our daily lives miserable, but he chose to bless us with everything we need, not just to survive, but to thrive.

               Why should we be thankful? Because, in God’s design, thankfulness is the fulfillment of every pleasure. Thankfulness is the elevation of even small blessings. Thankfulness changes our perspective on our world and on life itself. Thankfulness makes life worth living.

               In our affluent society, we tend to live with constant discontent. Great effort is made every day to place our focus on what we don’t have or what we “deserve.” This Thanksgiving, let us take our eyes off of what we don’t have and focus on the innumerable gifts that God places within our lives every day.

Psalms 103:1-5 (NIV)
Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

 

What’s the Big Deal?

 

John 3:16-18 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

               One of the criticisms of Christianity is that we are so focused on heaven that we are no earthly good. So, what is the big deal about heaven? Why is that such an important concept for believers in Christ?

               If we see heaven as an escape from this world, then the criticism we get is valid. A person who is only concerned about going to heaven when they die tends to live with blinders on. They focus on the distant future with little regard for present realities. But that is not the essence of our faith in eternity. In fact, those who are most convinced about eternity are the most invested in the present.

               We live in a secular world that has convinced millions of people that we are just evolutionary accidents. There is no ultimate meaning in life. Any meaning that we have we create for ourselves. Yet this flies in the face of how people actually live. Most people live as if there is some undefined ultimate standard to which all people are subject. True relativism crumbles when a person must make decisions regarding what is right and wrong in life. As soon as a person says that some things are right and others are wrong, they are appealing to some universal standard of morality. They may not be able to articulate where that standard comes from, but they believe in it.

               Tim Keller, in his book The Reason for God, gives the illustration of a woman who strongly contends that all morality is culturally based and shaped by the dominant culture. Yet she also believes that women’s rights are universal and must be upheld in every culture. When asked what she bases her conviction upon, she responds that everyone knows that abusing women and children in wrong. She is appealing to some universal standard of morality.

               So, what does that have to do with a belief in eternity? It makes all the difference in the world. If a person believes that their life will be judged by an ultimate standard in eternity, it shapes how they live their present life. The Christian belief is eternity is not just some pie-in-the-sky hope of eternal bliss. It is a realistic understanding that how we live our lives here on earth matters. It upholds the idea that all human actions will one day be judged, whether good or bad. It acknowledges that if judged on the scales of eternity, we will all fall short, but that through faith in Jesus the scales will be tipped to our advantage. In response to this, a true believer strives to align his or her life with God’s ultimate standards. Not as a way to earn salvation, but as a response to what Jesus has already done for them.

               When a person lives their life without any hope of eternity, it also changes everything. If the seventy or eighty years on earth that a person gets is all that there is, why wouldn’t that person leverage everything for their advantage. Selfishness is the natural and normal consequence of a denial of eternity. Even seemingly selfless actions are calculated to bring some advantage to the person. It may enhance their self-esteem or raise their profile with others. But taken to its logical conclusion, it really doesn’t make a difference. If when we die physically, we disappear, then it really doesn’t matter how I live my life in the present.

               Evolutionary philosophy teaches us that we are all just accidents of the evolutionary process. In every aspect of this process, survival of the fittest is the name of the game. Yet, when we look at human beings, we balk at the idea of survival of the fittest. We contend that the poor, the vulnerable, the disadvantaged need to be cared for, but why? On what basis are we claiming that this should be true?

               On the other hand, Christianity teaches us that how we treat one another matters. All human beings are created in the image of God and are of value. Everyone deserves respect and care, regardless of their social, ethnic, or physical status. Because we believe that this life is the prelude to eternity, we take this life more seriously. A person who believes in a God of justice will work for justice in the here and now. A person who believes in a God of creation will take managing this creation more seriously. A person who believes in a God who cares about every individual will make ever effort to care for those around them.

               We Christians have not always had a great track record in some of these areas. That is not the fault of our belief in eternity. It is that we have not taken our belief in eternity seriously enough. Because we believe that God exists and will judge every person according to their life, we need to take how we live this life seriously. What we do today matters for all of eternity.

               Historically, those who have the strongest belief in eternity have made the greatest contributions to the present. Those who believe in eternity have been willing to make enormous personal sacrifices for others. Those who believe in eternity have put enormous effort into raising the status of the abused, marginalized, and abandoned.

               So, what’s the big deal about eternity? Without a belief in eternity all of life ultimately becomes meaningless. With a belief in eternity all of life becomes sacred and of great consequence.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 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 on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

TIME TO TRUST GOD

 

Proverbs 21:1 (NIV)
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

               Today is a day of anxiety for many people. As people go to the poles to cast their votes, we anxiously await the outcome. This year, it seems like we are in a no-win situation. Whichever candidate wins the presidency there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

               As followers of Jesus, we need to step back and take a very different perspective on what is happening. Unfortunately, for the last several decades, Christians have placed their trust in political action and placed their hope in political figures. This has taken our eyes off of Jesus. The Psalmist warns us that placing our hope in politics is a dead end. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. Psalms 146:3 (NIV) It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. Psalms 118:8-9 (NIV)

               First, we need to acknowledge that we live in a fallen world that is bent on leading us away from God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul described the world we live in in detail. See if his words don’t accurately depict the world in which we live.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

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.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.      

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.      

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.      

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:18-32 (NIV)

 

               Second, we need to remember that God uses flawed people to accomplish His purposes. He allowed Babylon to capture Jerusalem and send His people into exile in order to refine His people. He allowed Rome to be in control of the known world in order to use their systems to expand the gospel to the world. Moses, David, Peter, Paul were all flawed people that God used for His glory. So are you and I and so are the people running for political office. God can use whomever He chooses to accomplish His purposes.

               It is easy for us to despair in the face of a world that is spiraling down into destruction. But our hope is not in a political party or social system. Our hope is in the Living God, Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples not to live in fear, but to live in confidence and hope, even in the face of evil. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 (NIV)

               The writer of Hebrews challenges us to get our eyes off of the world and fix them firmly on Christ. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIV)

               God is calling us to stop putting our hope in particular political parties or systems and place it firmly on Him. We need to stop trying to legislate righteousness and start living righteously. The early church lived in a world much like ours today. They transformed their world without any political power. They did it by living godly lives in the face of the evil around them. The darker the day the brighter the light will shine. Jesus has called us to be that light in a dark world. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)

               We have an obligation to be good citizens and do our part by expressing our right to vote. It is essential that we are involved in shaping the government under which we live. But we cannot place our faith in that government. Instead, we need to put our trust in the one who has the ultimate say. As Larry Osborne has put it, we need to remember that “God is in control of those who are in control.” However this election shakes out, God is still on the throne and His plans and purposes will prevail.

Isaiah 40:21-24 (NIV)
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.