So the story goes that there was a rumor floating around Oxford
University that Rudyard Kipling was such a great author he was paid one
schilling per word (about 8 cents US currency).
As a prank, some of the students wrote a letter to Kipling enclosing a
schilling with a note reading "send us one of your words". Kipling promptly replied with a hand-written
note. When the students opened the
envelope, on a single piece of paper was the word "thanks."
Thanks, thanksgiving, gratitude, appreciation. These words have long been the province of
religion and philosophy but now are even commonplace in psychology and
self-help circles as the value of gratitude is seen to have a beneficial effect
on mood and well-being. In the context
of Christianity, gratitude of the heart is actually a commandment because
thankfulness to our Creator and Lord is a rich component of worship. In this article I would like to share 4
things the Bible teaches about being thankful and how a gracious spirit of
gratitude can be cultivated even is a season of depression or difficult
circumstance.
First of all, know that God wants our eyes upon Him because He is the
chief reason we should be grateful. The
Lord is the giver of all good gifts in our lives. We should be grateful for the blessings we
receive but we should never separate the gift from the giver. In his excellent audio series on heaven,
author and teacher Randy Alcorn reminds us that God desires us to be excited
about being in heaven with all its delights, but not the exclusion of being
excited about being with Him. All
parents love giving things to their children they know will be appreciated and
enjoyed, but would never want their child to only appreciate the gift. They want to be appreciated and loved as
well.
In a rather chilling prophecy given by Moses, we read that Israel, whom
God was giving a land of milk and honey (great prosperity in agricultural
terms), would eventually have to be chastened by having their prosperity
removed because the gift became more important than the giver: “Because you did
not serve the Lord your God with
joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,
therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in
hunger and thirst, in nakedness, lacking everything ( Deut. 28:47-48).” It’s
important to appreciate the good things in our lives, but the things should
never be appreciated above the One who supplies them.
Secondly, the Lord would have us remember Him and be grateful even in
the hard places. As Paul wrote the
Thessalonian church: “… give thanks
in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1
Thess 5:18).” This has echoes from Job
who said to his wife that God is to be praised not only when good comes our way
but also adversity (2:10). Choosing
to give thanks to God on a dark day is what one author calls looking towards
the sun. One can choose to turn their
face to the shadows of hard circumstance, but that is all they will see. When you turn towards the light of God, the
shadows will diminish because they are behind you.
Matthew Henry, the beloved 18th century preacher and
Bible commentator, was once accosted by thieves and robbed of his purse. Following this harrowing event he wrote in
his diary: Let me be thankful first,
because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse,
they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not
much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed. Sometimes we just need to be grateful that
what happened to us wasn’t as bad as it could have been! The true reason we continue to be grateful
even in trials is that we know God is who orders every one of our days and
therefore even our suffering is part of His good plan of growing us up and
making us more fruitful as His servants.
Thirdly, the spirit of gratitude in our lives can be cultivated by what
we let captivate our hearts and minds.
In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul instructs “ Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in
all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in
your hearts to God (3:16).” The early
church was a singing church as well as being dedicated to the study of the
apostles. What is striking my heart here
is the powerful synergy that exists between singing and memory. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t
remember the “ABC” song they were taught in kindergarten. Some people I know, now in advanced age,
continue to refer to this childhood song when they are trying to alphabetize
files. Singing praise and worship songs,
especially ones that are based entirely on scripture, enable you to memorize the
truth about God’s love and glorious person and also the hope we should take in
our relationship with him.
Having recently experienced a great trauma in my personal life, I have
found my mind wandering into some very dark and unhealthy places especially
when I am alone such as my commute to work or now that I am in middle age, most
every night when I lay in bed awake after having gotten up to go to the
bathroom. It has been surprising to find
what often consoles me and bubbles up are praise and worship songs. Some of these songs I have been singing for
years but they were not necessarily that meaningful to me. Now they have become quite poignant and
comforting.
Psychologists and self-help experts have long practiced the use of
‘positive affirmations’ to heal the mind and body of negative thinking and to
spur on personal growth. Although the
practice has some naysayers, for the most part it is a respected tool because
of its overall effectiveness. In a way,
the singing of hymns and spiritual songs by a Christian is an affirmation
process on steroids. The focus is turned
towards the real source of any hope or strength we can have in this life: God
himself. Which brings me to my final
point.
The ability to have a heart of gratitude is resourced in the power of
the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is what
Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:12-13: “ I know how to be
brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have
learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him
who strengthens me.” A very important
point is made here. It is not a denial
of desire or need that the Christian strives to attain. The secret of contentment then is not having
fewer needs, although this can be an honest by-product of a lean period, but
rather that Christ shall give the strength necessary to live joyfully even if
one is wanting for something. Of course
we would do well to not exaggerate our neediness, for too often we mistake our
personal greed for a need and this is not something that is gracious in the
sight of God. But the main point is God
shall supply the strength we need to live in the day of blessing and the day of
adversity. We need not worry about
conjuring up an attitude of gratitude but rather trust and lean into the
strength the Lord has graciously provided.
Remember, the Lord may require you to walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, or doubt, or depression, or deprivation, but He will never ask
you to do it apart from the grace of His Spirit. That, in itself, is something for which to be
grateful.
One author has made the piercing observation that the only difference
between a monastery and a prison is the spirit of griping or gratitude. Imprisoned criminals tend to spend every
waking moment griping about their condition; while self-imprisoned saints (in a
monastery) spend most of their day giving thanks to God. However, if a criminal becomes a saint and
begins offering thanks all the time, his prison becomes for him a monastery; and
a saint who gives up thanksgiving, his monastery becomes its own form of a
prison. As Victor Frankl wrote, our
ultimate freedom as human beings is to choose our attitude about our present
circumstances. God would have you to
choose the freedom and well-being that accompanies a heart of thanksgiving.
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