September 22nd marked the first official day of fall. But with temps still in the low to mid 90s (at least where I live) it was a little early to drag out our cardigans and really get into the spirit of Autumn.
November is now here. We turned back our clocks this week, turned on our heaters, pulled out our hoodies or sweatshirts, and are now turning our thoughts towards Thanksgiving.
Whatever your plans, for many, Thanksgiving will be a time of celebration with our favorite foods, our family and friends, a parade, a football game or two, and of course the black Friday shopping.
While Thanksgiving is uniquely an American Holiday, signed into law in 1863 by President Lincoln. It really has much older roots than that.
In Leviticus, God outlines several feasts that the Israelites should celebrate. One is called the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23) and has a twofold purpose. It was to celebrate the fall harvest (the Jewish "Thanksgiving"), and serve as a commemoration of the Israelite’s deliverance from Egypt and their protection, provision and care by the hand of God during their 40 years in the wilderness. I love the concept behind the Feast of the Tabernacles: this joyful holiday is a recognition of God's salvation, shelter, provision, and trustworthiness. In short – Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving should not just be an annual celebration. It should be something we do daily.
It’s an attitude of the heart. Thankfulness celebrates what you have and doesn’t focus on what you don’t have.
Thankfulness celebrates what you have and
doesn’t focus on what you don’t have.
It has been said that a pessimist will see a glass half empty, but an optimist sees the glass half full. A thankful heart recognizes that just having a glass with water in it is a blessing.
2022 has been challenging for many for a variety of reasons. But, regardless of what you have endured or encountered this year, I’m here to tell you that God has NOT changed. He is still faithful. He still provides. He is still trustworthy. And most of all He still loves us and wants to set us free. He deserves our Thanksgiving.
For the month of November, we are going to be focusing our hearts and minds on the theme “Thankful, Grateful & Blessed”. Instead of recounting those things that we’ve lost, we’re going to intentionally turn our hearts towards being thankful and celebrate who God is and what he’s done this past year.
I’m sure it will come as a shock to you but being thankful doesn’t come naturally for most of us. Even small children struggle with the concept. For instance, if you break a cookie in half to share between two children, one will complain that the other kid got the bigger half instead of being thankful they received a portion of the treat.
As adults, we still find ourselves saying “That’s not fair.” Regardless of whatever injustice we feel has happened to us, whether it’s someone taking our parking space, cutting us off in traffic, or even someone getting a promotion ahead of us at work. We simply struggle with thankfulness. When life gives us lemons, there is something in us that focuses on the negative rather than trying to find the positive and figure out how to make the proverbial lemonade.
In Acts 16:16-24, we find an account where Paul & Silas chose to be thankful.
“Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
“When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.’”
“The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
If ever there was an occasion to cry “unfair”. It was this one. Paul & Silas had been falsely accused. They were beaten and thrown into prison on trumped up charges. They had broken no laws nor deserved the treatment they received.
So, the question is why? Why did they have to go through that whole ordeal?
It would be great if the answer were simple. But it’s not. It’s times like these when I have to fall back on the verse from Isaiah 55:8-9.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I don’t want you to think of this as a cop out – but when I don’t have the answers, I really do rest in the fact that God does.
In looking at this account from Acts, I see a couple of reasons that this may have happened. First of all, I see Paul and Silas in the business of making disciples.
In Acts 16, verse 5 we read, “ So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” And in verse 14, we find the conversion of Lydia and her household. “She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.”
Satan will use any means necessary to stop the spread of the good news of Jesus. Satan hates God and will do all he can to influence us to walk away from our faith. We live in a broken world and bad things are going to happen. How we respond to them is our 100% our choice.
Paul and Silas chose to be thankful.
The account picks up in verse 25: “ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”
Secondly, how we react and respond to life’s challenges will impact not only us and our outlook but it can also impact those around us. If we grumble and gripe, then those watching us will not believe us when we say God loves them. If we whine about our circumstances, they will not believe us when we say God has plans for their lives.
Paul & Silas’s response to their circumstances while in the jail was instrumental in the salvation of the jailer and his whole household. Our response to our trials and tragedies will also be used. The question is will they be used by God for his glory, or by the enemy to sow conflict and discontentment.
Take a deep breath and look for God in the moment.
I am not by any means suggesting that we put on a false front and pretend to be happy. But I am suggesting that you take a deep breath and look for God in the moment. When we can find and identify God in the moment, it’s easier to then find thankfulness.
For the Christ-follower, the Christian, The Believer, whatever name you want to put on it, thanksgiving should be a daily, hourly, moment by moment mind-set – not just an annual celebration.
“ Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (from the Message)
Comments