INTRODUCTION
In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, 17, and 18 St.
Paul’s instructs us to do three impossible things.
Verse 16 says, “Rejoice always.”
Verse 17 says, “Pray without ceasing.”
And verse 18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you.”
The last two times I was here at Village
Ridge I spoke on verses 16 and 17.
I said that it seems impossible to rejoice always and to pray without ceasing.
But it is
possible to have joy deep down in our hearts—even when they are broken--because
we know that God always loves us. I’m not saying it is easy; I’m saying with
Jesus at our side it is possible to rejoice always.
And it is possible to pray without ceasing
when we remember that prayer doesn’t have to mean nonstop talking to God. To
pray without ceasing means to pray earnestly and never give up.
We pray without ceasing when we keep God
always in our thoughts, always ready to tell him our needs, always ready to
give thanks.
Today I want to talk about verse 18: “Give thanks in all circumstances.”
I. Giving thanks in all circumstances doesn’t
mean that we should thank God for bad things.
A. Many things happen that are evil.
Many people find it impossible to believe in
a good God because they look at all the sorrow and trouble in the world and
say, “If God is God, why doesn’t he do something?”
The truth is: this world is a battleground
between God and the Enemy of our souls.
God has given freedom to the world and
sometimes people exercise their freedom to hurt others.
Even nature has a certain amount of freedom,
and so earthquakes happen, and floods, and typhoons, and germs and sickness and
pain.
Sometimes the devil gets his way in the world,
and he inflicts pain on us and people we love.
God grieves about the evil things that go on
in the world.
Jesus wept at the grave of his friend.
Jesus loved the people of Jerusalem and wept
because they chose to reject him and continue on a course that could only bring
disaster upon them, so he wept over the doomed city.
The great
thing is that God promises that he can work in all this mess of evil in the
world to bring forth good for his people. Some of us can look back on our lives
and see that even in our lives, God has brought good out of evil.
And if we can’t see it, we remember that “we walk by faith and not by sight.” We
believe that God is working on our behalf and that if we love God, he will make
everything come out right in the end.
B. So the verse doesn’t say, “Give thanks for everything that happens”;
it says, “Give thanks in all
circumstances.” The King James Bible reads: “In everything give thanks.”
I don’t thank God for my aching back, or that
my friend has died. I wouldn’t thank God if I learned that my grandchild had
cancer.
II. We thank God for the good things because
all good comes from God.
A. No matter what happens, there is plenty to
be thankful for:
--We thank God for our Lord Jesus…
--We thank God for our salvation…
--We thank God for those we love and who love
us …
--We thank God for food to eat, water to
drink, air to breathe, a warm, dry place to live in, and for those who we
depend on.
--We thank God for our assurance of life with
Jesus forever in Paradise.
We refuse to dwell on the bad things, the
disappointments, the evil in the world.
B. One of the greatest gifts God has given us
is our memories.
We may envy young people because they have so
many possibilities ahead of them.
We don’t have many possibilities, but we have
memories, and one of the great joys of old age is to recall the good times.
We think often of the kindnesses we have
experienced from others, and we give thanks for those people who blessed us.
Sometimes when I can’t sleep I go over in my
mind the many people who have blessed me in my life—by their example, by their
gifts, by their encouragement, by their wisdom. And I thank God that he brought
them into my life.
Sometimes I remember the good times, when I
have experienced unexpected blessings—and give thanks.
C. In Ephesians 5:4 Paul instructs the
Christians in Ephesus to avoid obscene, silly, vulgar talk, but instead, he
says, “let there be thanksgiving.”
One translation of this verse (Phillips) reads: “The key-note of
your conversation should not be nastiness or silliness or flippancy, but a
sense of all that we owe to God.”
I remember a friend at a nursing home I used
to visit. She told me about one of the other ladies who was always complaining.
She said to me: “I told her, we just
can’t take that attitude.”
My friend had just lost her husband whom she
loved dearly. Of course she was grieving. But she decided not to dwell on her
losses. She refused to take “that attitude.”
III. I would like to share with you some
things I learned from the Internet recently.
A. A psychologist named Robert Emmons at
University of California, Davis, studied the effects of gratitude and put his
conclusions into a book entitled Thanks!
How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
He divided the participants in one study into
two groups. He asked one group to write in a journal each week about the
unpleasant events they had experienced during the week. He asked the other
group to write about what they were thankful for.
At the end of the study he learned that those
students who had recorded things they were thankful for were more likely to
have improved their grades and health goals than those who kept a record of
their unpleasant experiences. They had become happier people.
B. Another psychologist studied adults with
neuromuscular disease. After 21 days of writing what they were grateful for,
the participants reported feeling more energetic, felt a greater sense of
connection with others, and slept better than a control group that had not
written about what they were grateful for.
C. A Kent State University study asked
students to write one letter of gratitude to someone once every two weeks for
six weeks. He found that the more the students wrote, the better they felt.
Their writing letters of gratitude resulted in higher grades, fewer health
problems, and decreased depression.
CONCLUSION
Just to practice gratitude has many positive
benefits.
But as believers we have to take it farther.
We have someone to thank.
We sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings
flow…”
Blessings come from other people, but
ultimately all good things come from God.
Expressing our thanks to God is the best way
to keep connected with God and to feel him to be present in our lives.
Every morning I write a letter to God. My
goal is to write at least one page. Writing my morning prayer helps me keep
focused in my praying.
Usually I request a lot of things. I ask God
to bless people I know and people I don’t know. I pray for you.
But I always try to include things I am
thankful for.
Sometimes I try to make my letter be all
thankfulness. We should thank God as well as asking him for his help.
Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran minister in
Eilenberg, Saxony, about 400 years ago.
During the Thirty Years’ War, the walled city
of Eilenberg saw a steady stream of refugees pour through its gates. The
Swedish army surrounded the city, and famine and plague were rampant. Eight
hundred homes were destroyed, and the people began to perish. The Rinkart home
was a refuge for many who were homeless.
There was a tremendous strain on the pastors,
who had to conduct dozens of funerals daily. Finally, the pastors, died too,
and Rinkart was the only one left—doing 40-50 funerals a day. In all, Pastor
Rinkart conducted almost 5000 funerals during that time—including that of his
wife.
When the Swedes demanded a huge ransom,
Rinkart left the safety of the walls to plead for mercy. The Swedish commander,
impressed by his faith and courage, lowered his demands.
Soon afterward, the Thirty Years’ War ended,
and Rinkart wrote this hymn for a grand celebration service. It is a testament
to his faith that after such misery.
Now
thank we all our God
With
heart and hands and voices;
Who
wondrous things hath done,
In
whom his world rejoices.
Who,
from our mother’s arms,
Hath
led us on our way
With
countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.
No comments:
Post a Comment