Shelburne: Thanksgiving — not just now, but always
“Be thankful,” the Bible commands Christ’s followers (Col. 3:15).
That instruction doesn’t apply just during Thanksgiving time when most of us start listing specific blessings to give thanks for. Thankfulness should be an every-minute, all-time habit for people of faith.
But even a godly act such as giving thanks can go awry if we don’t do it thoughtfully. When the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:20 to “give thanks to God the Father for everything,” surely he expects his readers to be smart enough not to thank the Lord for curses and burdens sent by Satan. He doesn’t want us to make the same mistake Job did when he blamed God for horrific tragedies sent by the devil.
Instead, as Paul later put it more clearly, we are to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thes. 5:18) — not “for” all circumstances. That’s a huge difference that can be important in keeping our faith intact.
My dear mother spent her final days addled and agonizing because of an inoperable malignant brain tumor. No member of my family whose brain was still working would have thanked God “for” all that pain and hopelessness, but all of us in that heartbreaking circumstance could still thank God for the skill and wisdom of the neurosurgeon who guided us through that dark time. We could thank the Lord for the friends who reached out to aid us. And we could (and did) thank God minute by minute for staying beside us and strengthening us during those hardest of days. Even in that awful circumstance, we still could thank him.
A dear friend tells of the ghastly moment on a Vietnam battlefield when fragments of a mortar explosion instantly killed his radio man right beside him. A man of deep faith, my friend didn’t thank God “for” that sudden loss, but later his prayers were filled with gratitude for God’s guidance that helped him and his Marine regiment escape almost certain devastation by a huge enemy army.
“Whatever happens, keep thanking God,” is the Contemporary English Version’s translation of 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Even better I like the way The Message says it: “Thank God no matter what happens.”
No, don’t blame God for the bad stuff, but even in the hardest times, thank him for helping you get through them. The Bible tells us this kind of continual thankfulness “is God’s will for you.”
Gene Shelburne is pastor emeritus of the Anna Street Church of Christ, 2310 Anna Street, Amarillo, Texas. Contact him at geneshel@aol.com, or get his books and magazines at www.christianappeal.com. His column has run on the Faith page for more than three decades.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Shelburne: Thanksgiving — not just now, but always
