Tuesday, November 29, 2011

When It's Hard to Give Thanks

It is easy to give thanks when you stop and truly meditate on what you have and not what you don't have. But what do you do when the what-you-don't-have is a person? Or worse yet, people? If age teaches you anything, it teaches you that things can be replaced. People cannot.

I look around me and so many people are hurting. So much has been lost in the last six years....not just for me.....for nearly everyone has been touched by the economy, by death, by disease, by disheartenment, by discouragement. Sometimes I literally believe I can feel the weight on my chest of those for whom I pray. It makes me ache.

And yet.....God is good. Always. He is not put out by the weakness of our economy OR our faith. He is firmly seated on the throne and He is not anxious or afraid. He has a plan and it is being accomplished in His way and in His timing. And we, His beloved; are just as firmly held in His hand. His wing of protection arched tenderly over and around us. Not a thing comes to us that He hasn't allowed...and it is for our good and His glory.

That is how we give thanks always. In the knowing. Faith is knowing what we don't see. Faith is knowing Him. That has been my determined purpose for many years. And when the ravages of grief threatened to overwhelm me, when the enemy tried to steal my sanity and my hope, it was the knowing Him that was my salvation.

So when it's hard to give thanks, give thanks for Him. For the One who sits on the throne and never makes a mistake. For the One who promises to bring good from all this mess around us. For the One who sees the ending that you and I can't yet see but know will be more wonderful than we can imagine.

That is why He told us to give thanks in everything. Not because everything is good but because He is always worthy of our thanks. And because our souls respond to gratitude. They are lifted from the murky shadows of this world to the light of His presence when we intentionally voice our thanks. Thanks for a God who allows His children to hurt for a season so they can be victorious for eternity.

All of that will more than compensate for all of this. It's a promise and I know the Promise-Giver.

When it's hard to give thanks, do it anyway. You will have to be intentional. You may begin grudgingly...but do it, my friend. Do it. It will transform you. It will defeat the enemy who has tried to blindfold you to the deep and abiding love God has for you as well as the purposes He is accomplishing in you. And you will find thankfulness to be self-fulfilling. As you give thanks, you will become thankful. And it will be a real thankfulness...not a thankfulness that is shallowly based on what you can touch. A thankfulness that is deeply rooted in those things that cannot be touched. For they are what is real!

".....for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."