How Can We Give Thanks Constantly?

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Paul gives this simple little list of reminders to the Church at Thessalonica near the end of his first letter to them. At face value, they are very basic. Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. Those are things that we know should mark the characteristic attitude of the believer. We, of all people, should be known for our joy because of the joy that was set before Christ as he endured the cross four our redemption (Hebrews 12:1). We, of all people, should be known for our prayer, as our Lord taught his disciples that they should always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). And we know we should be thankful, as it is modeled for us in the Scriptures time and time again.

Where the rubber meets the road on these reminders is in the modifiers that Paul uses. Rejoice evermore. Pray incessantly. Give thanks always. Now, Paul was a human who admitted to his own continuing struggle with sin and imperfection (see Romans 7), yet the fact that he gives these commands shows that they are expected to at least be the norm ,and in some sense, this constant attitude of joy, prayer, and thankfulness is a real possibility for Christians. Now, we could stop there and this little note wouldn’t be very encouraging, because none of us are successful at rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances. I want to dive in to the why for a moment, especially concerning giving thanks on this Thanksgiving day.

When I examine my own lack of thankfulness, I see two primary enemies at work; difficulty and apathy. The first, difficulty, is the most understandable. That is, sometimes it is difficult to give thanks because life circumstances don’t lend themselves to it. The command is give thanks in all circumstances. That is pointed, and it is hard; but it is for our good. Some circumstances don’t provide a fertile garden bed for thankfulness, but the attitude of the disciple, a new creation in Christ, can foster thankfulness even in the most difficult situations. When the dog chews the new sofa, when the car won’t start, when the bills pile up, when the sickness won’t let go, when the job comes to an end, when your loved one passes, the natural elements in those situations usually produce bitterness, which is the exact opposite of thankfulness in this situation. Bitterness shakes its fist at God. It goes beyond asking “why?” and instead asks “how dare you?” Bitterness, if it had its druthers, would never soften its grasp on the throes of our heart and emotions. Bitterness requires a great renewal – a renewal of the mind. We must guard against bitterness. It is ok to ask “why?” but we must shepherd our hearts to thank and trust, even in great difficulty.

The second great enemy of thankfulness, and perhaps the more prominent, is apathy. Apathy can clothe itself in many costumes: self-sufficiency, autonomy, laziness, complacency, and perhaps the most dangerous, entitlement. All of these attitudes find convenient excuses for displaying unthankfulness. Self-sufficiency says “I’ve done it for myself, so I don’t need to be thankful.” Autonomy says “I am my own person, I don’t submit to another in thankfulness.” Laziness says “thankfulness and taking care of my life is not worth the effort.” Complacency says “I simply don’t care, and cannot be persuaded to care.” Entitlement says “I deserve these good things. Nobody has done me any favors.” Now, when I say this attitude of apathy is most prominent, I speak from the perspective of a 21stcentury American. In our culture, there is probably less difficulty than there is abundance. That is, our blessings, even for the least of us, usually add up to outweigh our hardships by a decisive sum. So we have plenty of reasons to be thankful, but we simply are not.

Now, you may find yourself more in one or the other category, and these are by no means exhaustive. But we would all be liars if we said we were as thankful as we ought to be. So the question remains, how is constant thankfulness a possibility for the follower of Jesus? Well, the reason is simple: constant thankfulness is possible, not because our circumstances don’t waver, but because the proper recipient of our thankfulness never waivers. That is, we can always give thanks because God is always thank-worthy, and we never receive unrighteousness from His hand. Psalm 107, Psalm 118, and Psalm 136 all give us this fitting reminder – “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.” God’s love is unfailing, and He is always good. You may say, “that is cliché. Of course, ‘God never changes’ so we should always be thankful. But that doesn’t calm my troubled heart.” The problem is, we can’t simply rely on the phrase or the idea that God is good, and His love endures forever, but we must rely on the reality and the substance of that truth. The reality of that truth works itself out in things like; “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”(James 1:17) The reality of God’s constant good and steadfast love works itself out in things like; “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Those two verses remind us that God is the source of all good, and for believers, God is working all things for good. That covers apathy and difficulty. It covers apathy because we know that the good things we have do come from an outside source, God, who deserves our thanks; and it covers difficulty because we know that God’s stream of faithfulness, providence, and sovereignty is working god even in the difficulty. “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.” God is always good, even when our experience says otherwise. We have to remember that the unchanging God is enacting an unchanging work, a drama, really, that is flowing from age to age. When our circumstances change, it doesn’t mean that God has changed or that His plan has changed; it simply means that within His master, sovereign plan to work all things for good, He has ordained a bump in the road that includes temporary suffering. Whatever that bump in the road might be, whether annoyance or tragedy, we can give thanks because the work of the unchanging God is going on unhindered, and it will result in good.

The words of an old Hymn, “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right,” sum this up well.

"Whate'er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still, whate'er He doth,
and follow where He guideth.
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
wherefore to Him I leave it all.

"Whate'er my God ordains is right:
here shall my stand be taken;
though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
yet am I not forsaken.
My Father's care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
and so to Him I leave it all."

So on this Thanksgiving, meditate on all these things, mostly the scriptures, and give thanks in all circumstances. It is not only possible, but it is good and joyful.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Aaron Frost,
November 25, 2021