A Thankful Heart

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (1 Thess. 5:18). In every season of life, in good times or hard, living under tyranny or enjoying liberty, in a mansion or a shack, having godly children or wayward ones, loving or hating your present employment, skinny or fat, at peace with your wife or struggling, thank the Lord! Because, second, his will is and ought to be considered the holy, truly good, and just cause of all things. We are to give thanks in everything for God’s hand is in everything, guiding and directing all the impulses, means, and outcomes of nature, mankind, good and evil, down to the minutest details we think are random.

                Third, giving thanks assumes we embrace God’s good will in relation to Christ Jesus our Savior. We have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). We are to consider everything that happens in our lives as inseparably tied to God’s loving, saving intentions toward us in Christ. He is our Head; we are his members. He is God’s Anointed; we are his seed, his generation. Thus, the Father’s love and goodness toward his Son – eternal, constant, vigilant, tender – is shown to us in everything because we are in him. Fourth, “concerning you” reminds us that God’s will and providence are specific, not a general watchcare or intent to bless, but a specific goodness that directs all that happens in our lives, whether we think them at the moment to be good or evil.

                Thanksgiving is impossible for unbelievers. They have no faith, love themselves supremely, and can neither accept nor tolerate the idea that they have an obligation to thank God for everything that transpires in their lives. They deny that his will governs them, for the very thought is uncomfortable and terrifying. For they do not know his loving will in Christ, and therefore the thought of God only awakens in them that guilty fear and unmet sense of obligation to their Creator of which Paul speaks in Romans 1. When conscience condemns, when the sense of deity written indelibly upon every human heart only awakens a conviction of coming judgment, thankfulness flees.

                As unbelieving men survey the world and their own lives, all the evil and suffering they see only embitters them against the God they know exists but whom they resist and deny in self-deceived blindness and ingratitude. They feel the blessings they possess are their own doing or accidents of chance. Thus, this past week, Thanksgiving was only observed by Christians. For unbelievers, it is nothing but a “happy harvest,” a hazy tradition, or preparation for the shopping season, in which their covetousness and greed will have yet another occasion to be piqued and gratified.

                It is very different for us! A thankful heart is the biblical heart, Christian faith. Consider the constant refrain of the sweet Psalmist of Israel: “O, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good” (Ps. 136). Or that Jonah was not released from the fish’s belly until he had thanked the Lord – even there, even then (Jonah 2:9). Our Savior’s life was a constant giving of thanks to the Lord (Matt. 11:25; Luke 10:21; 11:41; John 6:11), and especially on that last night when he broke the bread with his disciples (Luke 22:19). Thanksgiving is our main sacrifice of praise to the Lord (Ps. 107:22; 116:17; Heb. 13:15). In everything, at all times, we are to give thanks: in the congregation (Ps. 35:18; 95:2; 100:4), before the heathen (Ps. 18:49), when the Lord gives us joy in place of sadness (Ps. 30:11-12), for God’s holiness, saving mercy to us, and wondrous works (Ps. 30:4; 75:1; 92:1-2; 97:12; 105:1; 107:1; 119:62; Rev. 11:17), for his electing grace (2 Thess. 2;13), constantly and increasing (Eph. 1:16; Phil. 4:6; Col. 1:3; 2:7). Thanksgiving is the essence of true faith, godliness, and God’s covenant (Ps. 50:14; 140:13).

                A thankful heart is a first fruit of saving grace. “For who makes you to differ from another? and what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast, as if you did not receive it” (1 Cor. 4:7)? Thanksgiving is the steady rhythm of the grace-quickened heart. Everything we have is an undeserved gift from God. In mercy, he lavishes innumerable kindnesses upon us and draws us to himself through the voice, grace, and power of our Savior. Here we are pictured as completely empty vessels; empty of everything except sin and misery. Our Father looked upon us in our sunken condition, did not treat us as our sins deserve, and instead gave us life, salvation, and all good things.

                Do we believe this about ourselves? The believing heart is humbled, deeply humbled. When it thinks upon the Son of God, who loved us in our filth, died for our sins, and humbled himself so very low because our sin and misery had sunk us low beyond any hope of recovery by our own efforts, it cries with thanksgiving. Its prayers are not for wants but to give thanks. It is struck deeply and transformed progressively by the goodness of God in Jesus Christ. It grows in wonder of God’s favor. Thus, it gives thanks.

                And what a difference a thankful heart makes in our lives. Thankfulness lightens every burden. Thankfulness lightens the darkness of life and gives purpose and relief in sorrows. Thankfulness embraces God’s hand in disease as yet another opportunity to see his sustaining grace and power. It rejoices in poverty as much as in prosperity, not only because both come from his will and it is pointless to bicker with God, but also because its contentment is not found in its circumstances but in our loving, merciful God.

                Our burdens are heavier for our thanklessness. While our Father knows it is not in our best interest, our eternal interests, to give us heaven now, he certainly will not bless us for good unless we have learned, like Jonah, to thank him when covered with slime in the belly of the fish. In this hour, let thankfulness swell our hearts and homes: for our Savior’s pledge to build his church victorious over the gates of hell! For the Father’s goodness in preserving his worship and church and pulpit on these shores! For his constant watchcare over us and frustration of godless men and their evil schemes! Give thanks!

                Thanksgiving is so wrapped up with our soul, circumstances, and destinies, that we shall have no true joy, no strength unto obedience, no peace of soul or soundness of mind, unless we have a thankful heart. Let the Lord’s goodness make us thankful again – for his word and promises, goodness and mercy, faithfulness and covenant. The shadow of Calvary is behind us; the shadow of his throne is over and before us. Rejoice, give thanks, and sing!