In 1621 the pilgrims at Plymouth suffered from the discouraging invasion of disease and death. Nearly half of the pilgrims had died. Consequently in the fall of 1621 some suggested a service of mourning for the dead. However, wiser voices prevailed and the pilgrim leaders constructed a time of worship and thanksgiving for God’s blessings.
Instead of descending into depression by focusing upon their losses, those faithful Christ-followers ascended into the spiritual therapy of praise and thanksgiving by “forgetting not His many benefits.” (Ps. 103:2). Gov. William Bradford decreed a day of therapeutic thanksgiving because when you raise your praise it will lift your spirit into God’s healing presence.
The key to happiness is a grateful heart. Some people walk through life grumbly hateful. With God’s help you can switch to humbly grateful.
God’s Word prescribes the therapy of thanksgiving: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:19–20).
The rapper named Ice Cube provides a provocative prescription: “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” As we approach the Thanksgiving season check yourself. Are you happy, content and fulfilled? If the answer is “no,” then let’s do a check-up from the neck up and get rid of your stinkin’ thinkin’.
Feeling of entitlement
The prevailing attitude of our current culture seems to be entitlement. Legions of people develop the toxic attitude of ingratitude because they erroneously feel entitled to virtually everything. They suffer under the delusion the world “owes them” the biggest and best.
Others go beyond entitlement into self-sufficient arrogance and live with the infected attitude akin to the television character Bart Simpson who offered this sick prayer before a family meal, “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves. So thanks for nothing.” Choose to move from arrogance and entitlement into the healthy mindset of gratitude by following God’s guidelines for implementing the therapy of thanksgiving.
1. When do you give thanks? Always.
Paul’s perspective is impressive because he was not speaking from a luxurious resort or a penthouse suite. Instead the great missionary wrote from prison. Paul was often without his health, comforts, friends and freedom; but he was never without a thankful heart.
Strive to develop a consistent reflex of thanksgiving which enables you to praise God in every season and circumstance. David declared, “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be on my lips” (Ps. 34:1). You will praise God continually when you intentionally become a blessing detective who magnifies the positive assets you enjoy and minimizes your liabilities and frustrations.
2. What do you give thanks for? All things.
Did God really inspire Paul to prescribe gratitude for the terrible things that crash into us? Should we be grateful for a health crisis, a financial setback, the loss of a job or the death of a loved one? God is not prescribing a pseudo-gratitude for tragedy, but He does invite us to trust that His power is bigger than our problem.
When you trust that your Heavenly Father’s ability can trump your disability, profound gratitude is the natural result. The ultimate example is the cross which was transformed by God’s power from an ugly executioner’s tool into the beautiful bridge that leads to eternal life. Remember we serve a God who is “able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). Our gracious King Jesus can transform our troubles and tragedies into an opportunity to bring glory to His name and draw us closer to His heart.
Fanny Crosby lost her eyesight to a doctor’s mistake when she was a child. She became a faithful follower of Christ who wrote thousands of hymns that have blessed God’s family. Crosby explained, “God permitted my blindness so that He could shut me up with Himself.” Gratitude is not a child of circumstances but of faith. Because we trust God’s provision we choose to thank Him for our gain or pain. “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18).
3. Why do you give thanks? Because Jesus wins.
God’s Word declares, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my brethren, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always abound in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:57–58). Since Jesus has already won the victory, you are not this world’s victim. Ultimate victory is not determined by your current circumstances but by your eternal relationship to the living Lord.
‘The Divine Yes’
The great missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973), authored 30 books, influenced Gandhi and played a key role in moving India toward democracy. On Dec. 7, 1971, Jones suffered a paralyzing stroke. He was broken physically but not spiritually. He told his daughter, “I cannot die until I write my last book, which will be entitled ‘The Divine Yes.’”
He further explained, “I am so grateful God gave me this stroke so I can validate with my life everything I have preached. The stroke spoke to me a shattering ‘no’; but I still have the divine yes of Jesus. I have discovered that I may fail in these earthly tasks, but it makes no difference because my relationship to Jesus gives me the ultimate victory.”
We will suffer pain, hardship, hurt and defeat, yet through our relationship to Jesus we possess real purpose, peace, power and ultimate victory.
The dark seeds of discouragement will grow virtually anywhere except in a grateful heart that daily engages in the therapy of thanksgiving.
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