Gratitude

As I write this, I am awake early on Thanksgiving morning in Colorado. I have had these thoughts swirling around in my head for weeks ever since God showed me a rusty key that he said he had given his people. When I asked him what they key was he said it was thanksgiving, that he had given us a significant key in the act of giving thanks but that we did not use it much, hence the rust.

When we look through scripture, the idea of deliberately choosing gratitude, praise, thanksgiving, and rejoicing is littered through its pages. We are not just advised to give thanks, to rejoice, it is a command that is frequently repeated.

Recently, as I prepared to move, I have been sorting out, even throwing out, books which is something I find very hard to do. Most of them have in fact been re-homed which makes me happy. I came across one by Merlin Carothers called Prison to Praise that I obtained early in my Christian walk. It relates to 1 Thessalonians 5:18

… give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

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The basic premise is that thanksgiving, praise, is transformative and that as we thank God IN all circumstances (not necessarily FOR all circumstances) he is enabled to act and work to bring about his good.

As we look around the world today and we listen to the onslaught of doom-laden news, and in our circumstances, especially where we are struggling with situations that are not easy, it is easy to let our thoughts and our words tend towards complaint, towards anxiety, towards dread and fear, towards all things negative. In Philippians 4:6, where God is telling us how to handle our anxiety, our stressful situations, thanksgiving pops us again.

… do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Every day, in every circumstance, good or bad, we are always able to give thanks. In order to submit to God in his command to give thanks have started asking “God, what can I celebrate, what can I give thanks for in this situation?” Psalm 118:24 reminds us:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

God has given us a key. He has commanded us to give thanks. Therefore there must be something to give thanks for. “Lord, you made this day! What can I celebrate?”

I have been told that it is easy for me, as I tend to see things from a “glass half-full” perspective. I have also incidentally discovered that one of my coping strategies has been to minimise difficulty or negative things which feeds into that glass half-full mindset. Nevertheless, looking for things to be grateful for shifts our focus. We can choose to focus on what the enemy is doing and in effect celebrate the darkness and magnify it, or we can focus on what is good and right, on what God is doing, and magnify him. I know who I would rather magnify, and whose work I would rather celebrate! Philippians 4:8 is not a Pollyanna-ish ‘all will be OK, let’s not think about the bad stuff’ kind of burying of my head in the sand. Philippians 4:8 (quoted here from the Passion translation) is a strategy of war, thanksgiving is a strategy of war:

Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.

On a side note, Philippians was written by Paul as he was “in chains for the Lord” and so there is such credibility in him saying this a strategy to deal with persecution, with hard times – he lived through many, and yet his letter to the Philippians is full of rejoicing!

As we give thanks IN our circumstances, as we focus on what there is to be grateful for, refusing the poisoned chalice of grumbling and complaining that Paul warns us to avoid in Philippians 2, it not only lifts our mood and helps us feel more hopeful, it also makes us easier to live with, which is always helpful! It shifts the atmosphere around us. Constant focus on all that is wrong with the world, with our lives, our spouses, our family, our workplace, our health, and so on feeds a kind of poison into our lives, and as we speak it out, it poisons the atmosphere around us. We have all encountered people who never have a good word to say, who are always moaning. It is not conducive to hope and creates a dark cloud of negativity and ultimately leads to death – death of hope, death and not life in our words, our thoughts, in our relationships. Proverbs 18:21 reminds us:

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

So, this Thanksgiving and beyond, let’s remember Psalm 100 (such a good psalm to start the day!) which tells us to:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

As we give thanks and allow our focus to dwell on all that God has done that is good, to focus on his love and his faithfulness, let us enter into his presence where there is no sickness, no lack, nothing of death, strife and tears, everything of joy, of peace and love. Let us be held in that place of refreshing, of strengthening, of hope and expectation. Let’s celebrate in this place of light and life!

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬

And if you are looking for a song to act on the instructions in Psalm 100, to enter this place of thanksgiving, to go to war with grumbling and complaining, you could do worse than “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake which has been a regular feature in my Spotify playlist!