Thankfulness

Welcome back everyone and thanks for coming back after these few months of quiet. Over the last season of time a new friend of mine, David Gotman, approached me about starting a blog. He is a member at my church and truly a remarkable young man with a heart to serve the Lord. I’ve been able to connect with David through our Romans Bible Study and he shared with me his desire to write about God so I challenged him to give it a try and see how he likes it. I pray you are as blessed as I have been by reading this. It truly was a fresh reminder for me.

God bless you,

BMT

In modern times we are going and doing things faster than ever before, rushing at all times. We are more easily distracted and diverted in our everyday efforts. We go about our lives either through a schedule or routine that we have grown to dread in the day to day. Not only that, but we go about everything as if it was all there was to it; as if there is no one we are accountable to or a standard that we are to live by.

When are we taking time in our lives? To be still and thank God for what we have been given? Why are we so ungrateful in our lives today? We have the greatest amount of freedom, medical technology, innovation, knowledge, etc. We can communicate with people across the globe in microseconds.

These days we have so much, yet we are thankful for so little.

The poorest people today are in a far better place than ever before, there are actual programs that have been made to help people. Slavery has been made illegal by most modern countries. Transportation has improved so that instead of months and weeks, we make it to our destinations in hours. People are saved from diseases and illnesses that were incurable, now are either cured or alleviated.

Many times we think too much of ourselves giving into self instead of living like Christ. We at times lose sight of that fact and think life is all about what we want and what we would like to happen. We forget that we are supposed to be thankful in any and every situation.

In recent years, I have been ungrateful for a loving family that the Lord has given me — just because we may get on each other’s nerves. Many times I am reminded by the Word of God or a friend that I should be thankful for my family.

I have been ungrateful for the ability to communicate at times, for instance in the past I would ignore people’s phone calls if I was not in the mood to chat with them.

When I was young I did not want to at times take baths. After a missionary trip with my parents to a different country it was the first time I had just cold water to wash with. That experience opened my eyes to see that I am truly blessed in America where we take necessities so simple as water completely for granted.

All the blessings we have we forget to count them and be thankful for them.

How then may we be thankful and apply that to our lives? Start with a few things first and build from that. Thanking God that He has given you another day to live would be a good start (I sometimes forget that God numbers my days). Thank God for the food and the abundance of it in this country. Thank God that we can freely speak the truth that God wants us all to know to be molded by it and conformed to it. Thank God that we are employed, that there are so many choices in what you may do in the future, in life, in your career.

That He gives you what you need not what you want, for the prayers that have not been answered and how much better things have turned out because of that. For the life He has given you and the gifts that are given to you by the Holy Spirit. That we have the honor to use those for His glory, that you can freely and openly be a Christian, proclaiming His word in either the freedom of America or the persecution that exists in many countries around the world.

How do we stay thankful in awful circumstances?

Let’s take Corrie Ten Boom’s testimony, from her book The Hiding Place. Corrie was an underground leader during World War II and in May 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands. The Boom family became one of the few families to harbor Jews in their watchmaking shop. Their house became a central hub in the underground that rescued Jews. Within their home was a small closet-like structure hidden behind a wall in one of the rooms in the house where six people could fit, but they had to be absolutely still and quiet to evade SS raids.

Corrie became a leader in the underground and was in charge of safe houses that helped Jews escaped Nazi held Europe. She was involved in ministry in over 60 countries. After the war, she was also involved in a rehabilitation center for people affected by the war, all people Nazis and the Victims of Nazis. For all of her contributions she has been given a Knighthood by the Queen of the Netherlands and Israel’s award Righteous Among the Nations.

During this period of hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazi’s, she was imprisoned. In this prison, she, her sister, and other women were treated worse than an animal; as if they had no human dignity whatsoever. In all of these camps prisoners were kept in barracks. These buildings were not maintained, as they were made for maximum efficiency, pain, and torment — not for comfort. The beds were wood bunks that were falling apart and one certainly had no personal bubble. In many of these camps it was everyone for themselves; this meant backstabbing, stealing, fighting, absolute anarchy.

When they first made it to Barracks 28 at their camp, the place was infested with fleas. They slept with other prisoners cramped, feces, urine, fleas littered where they slept and the rancid smell of human waste. At first, she did not know how to be thankful for the situation she was in. But through prayer with her sister Betsie, the Lord spoke to them. In boldness, they started having bible-reading, worship, prayer in their barracks; they started all this while under the imprisonment of the Nazis.

One evening when Corrie arrived back at the barracks Betsie’s eyes were twinkling. “You’re looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,” Corrie told her.

“You know we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,” Betsie said, referring to the part of the barracks where the sleeping platforms were. “Well—I’ve found out. This afternoon there was confusion in my knitting group about sock sizes, so we asked the supervisor to come and settle it. But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?” Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice as she exclaimed, “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said: ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’”

So by having fleas they also had access to God freely. Even in the hardest of places and that time of their lives, they lived Christlike and gave thanks for pests, who they considered a gift from God.

Through their dedication to having Christian service many came to Christ, they started to live for Christ for one another instead of fighting each other for survival they shared their burdens and built each other up physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Thankfulness Vs. Unthankfulness and The Fruit Growing Out of Both

The fruit that proceeds from thankfulness brings us into a proper understanding of God and how we should live every step of our lives.

As Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 AMP:

16 Rejoice always and delight in your faith; 17 be unceasing and persistent in prayer; 18 in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

Applying this to our lives in the best and worst of times builds us up. It strengthens our reliance on God, our relationship with Him, and our ability to show God’s glory to everyone. It gives us absolute fulfillment when we put God in the forefront of our lives and seek to do His will. To live a godly life, to disciple others in the faith, to give our time and our resources to love others as much as we love ourselves, etc.

We need nothing else besides God, as John Piper would say God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

What is the fruit of unthankfulness?

It is depression, unhappiness, it leads people into a life of being jaded, hurt, bitterness, remorselessness, being their own god, finding satisfaction in things of this World that is corrupted by Sin.

Destruction of a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father, family, friends, and acquaintances as the list goes on. When we are unthankful it flings us into a black hole filled with nothing but the Lies of Satan and his desire to kill, steal, and destroy us, the creation of our God.

Because he is vile and wants us to have the same despair and ultimate death that is going to be given to him and all those who do not believe. We start to listen to him more, instead of being thankful for the ability to renew our minds daily in the Word. Thankfulness that the Lord has given us the victory through His death on the cross that freed us from the bondage, destruction, and absolute desolation of embracing Sin.

Why is it good to be thankful? The more we practice thankfulness, we can truly embrace God, and thank Him for His gift of Salvation. Thank Him for the good and the bad as it is given to us to become more like Christ. It is also a reminder to us that this world is not all that there is.

Thanks to Jesus we have eternal life where one day when He comes again we shall all be given resurrected bodies and all will be made right. Sin shall be no more, sickness, injustice, genocide, murder, death, destruction, shall no longer have any hold on us. Satan will be defeated forever, darkness will reign no more. Just a perfect relationship with God where the harmony that once existed in Eden with the first of mankind. That has been restored completely and our thankfulness for that restoration shall resound in eternity as we continue to grow in our relationship with God and do His will for all eternity.

Thankfulness leads us to Godliness, I believe thankfulness results in praise.

Prayer: From the Valley of Vision Page 15

Praise and Thanksgiving

O MY GOD,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,

my heart admires, adores, loves thee,

for my little vessel is as full as it can be,

and I would pour out all that fullness before thee

in ceaseless flow.

When I think upon and converse with thee

ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,

ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,

ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,

crowding into every moment of happiness.

I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,

for adorning it, sanctifying it,

though it is fixed in barren soil;

for the body thou hast given me,

for preserving its strength and vigour,

for providing senses to enjoy delights,

for the ease and freedom of my limbs,

for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;

for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,

for a full table and overflowing cup,

for appetite, taste, sweetness,

for social joys of relatives and friends,

for ability to serve others,

for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,

for a mind to care for my fellow-men,

for opportunities of spreading happiness around,

for loved ones in the joys of heaven,

for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.

I love thee above the powers of language

to express,

for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time

and eternity.