Appreciation Month
Practicing Thanksgiving In All Circumstances
Scottish preacher George Matheson had a problem. He realized he was less inclined to thank God when things went wrong. However, when he started to lose his vision, he had a shift in perspective. He struggled for some months with this weary burden until he reached the point where he could pray, “My God, I have never thanked You for my thorn. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensated for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as a present glory. Teach me the value of my thorn.” P.R. Van Gorder said, “When we count our blessings, we should include the weaknesses, the hardships, the burdens, and the trials we face. If we do, we might find that God has used our difficulties more than the ‘good’ things to help us grow spiritually.” We may never know the productive nature of God’s grace if we never go through any moments of difficulty. Trials drive us into the arms of a loving God, where we find comfort, peace, strength, and divine wisdom.
George Matheson argued that we need to thank God for thorns, but Corrie ten Boom implied that we need to thank God for the fleas. Over the years, God blessed Corrie to share her testimony of God’s goodness and divine provisions during her time in a Nazi concentration camp. There were fleas all over the camp, which was filthy. While incarcerated alongside Corrie, her sister Betsie maintained that God’s will for them was found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which reads, “In everything give thanks.” However, Corrie thought it was impossible to express gratitude in a flea-infested area—until she understood why the guards didn’t enter their barracks to stop them from praying and singing hymns. They wished to stay away from the fleas! As a result, the inmates were allowed to worship and read the Bible. Yes, even the fleas were a source of grace and something for which we should be grateful. George’s testimony about thorns and Corrie’s about fleas can help us practice joyful and thankful praise in every season of our lives.
The Apostle Paul shared a brief but profound ten-word paradigm to ensure that we do just that. In Philippians 4:4, he said, “Rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice!” We can learn several lessons from these ten words that Paul offered the church in Philippi.
First, we must obey the command to rejoice. Because it is a command, if the Philippians failed to rejoice, they would commit the sin of omission. Paul challenged the believers in Philippi to align their attitude with God’s inherent nature. God is inherently full of joy and desires to fill His people with divine joy (Zeph. 3:17; Gal. 5:22). Offering God thankful and joyful praise can reduce anxiety (Phil. 4:6). It is also essential for a local community of faith in establishing and maintaining consistent and uninterrupted unity (Phil. 4:3).
Paul knew that the command for joyful and thankful praise should never be limited to one person but is for the whole community of faith. Paul challenged the Philippians to rejoice and offset the division in the church. In Philippians 4:3, he urged two women (Euodia and Syntyche) to “live in harmony” or Christian unity. If these women focused on rejoicing and offering God thankful praise, they wouldn’t have time to focus on their differences, which causes damage to unity in the church. That’s an excellent message to the 21st-century church because disunity is a present problem in many ecclesial settings.
According to Paul, an important aspect of practicing thanksgiving is to center one’s joy and thanksgiving “in Christ” and not in one’s circumstances. Paul said the Christian community must “Rejoice, in the Lord always.” Whenever believers center their praise in circumstances, praising God will become circumstantial praise. Philippians is one of four Prison Epistles, written by Paul while he was imprisoned. When our praise is centered in Christ, we can always find a reason to offer joyful and thankful praise no matter where we are. We can approach all situations through a Christ-centered perspective that reshapes and realigns our perspective about life’s challenges.
A ninety-two-year-old Christian woman was legally blind. Despite her limitations, she was always neatly dressed, with her hair carefully brushed and her makeup tastefully applied. Each morning, she would meet the new day with eagerness. After her husband of seventy years died, it became necessary for her to go to a nursing home where she could receive proper care. On the day of the move, a helpful neighbor drove her there and guided her into the lobby. Her room wasn’t ready, so she waited patiently in the lobby for several hours.
When an attendant finally came for her, she smiled sweetly as she maneuvered her walker to the elevator. The staff member described her room to her, including the new curtains that had been hung on the windows. “I love it,” she declared. “But Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen your room yet,” the attendant replied. “That has nothing to do with it,” she said. “Happiness is something you choose. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how it’s arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind.” Approaching our circumstances from a Christ-centered perspective can rearrange our attitude to prepare us to face life challenges through joy and gratitude.
Practicing joyful and thankful praise in all circumstances requires every believer to do the following:
obey the command to rejoice
understand the communal need for joyful attitudes that can overcome disunity and worry
consistently center their joy and gratitude in the Lord