Thank God For Problems

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Giving thanks isn't always easy. Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran minister, lived in Eilenburg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years' War. The walled city of Eilenburg saw a steady stream of refugees pour through its gates. The Swedish army surrounded the city, and famine and plague were rampant. Eight hundred homes were destroyed, and the people began to die. There was a tremendous strain on the pastors who had to conduct dozens of funerals daily. Finally, the pastors, too, succumbed, and Rinkart was the only one left?doing 50 funerals a day. When the Swedes demanded a huge ransom, Rinkart left the safety of the walls to plead for mercy. The Swedish commander, impressed by his faith and courage, lowered his demands. Soon afterward, the Thirty Years' War ended, and Rinkart wrote the following hymn for a grand celebration service:

Now thank we all our God

With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices.

If I had spent the year presiding over hundreds of funerals I'm not sure that I could write a song of thanksgiving. It is interesting to note that down through the history of humanity, those who seemingly have had the least to thank God for, have thanked him the most.

Giving thanks isn't always easy. Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Thessalonica, penned these words of encouragement: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

To whom is this command addressed? It was addressed by the Apostle Paul to a church in northern Greece that had experienced persecution and suffering. Paul's purpose in writing the letter was to encourage them. If Paul could write these words to persecuted Christians do you think these words apply to you? Paul says it is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

The first official Thanksgiving Day on American soil occurred as a unique holy day in 1621. In the fall of that year there were still the lingering memories of the terrible winter the Pilgrims had just been through a few months before, in which countless babies, children, young people and adults had starved to death. Many of the Pilgrims had gotten to a point where they were even ready to go back to England. In fact, they had climbed into a ship and were in the harbor ready to return, ready to give up. It was only as they saw another ship coming into the harbor that they had enough courage to go back and to try to live in the midst of suffering. On that ship coming into the harbor there was a Frenchman named Delaware who brought medical supplies and food. Despite their great discouragement, the Pilgrims set aside a day for thanksgiving. Wow!

Let me tell you about another man who is a good example of thanksgiving. When he was 7 years of age, his family was forced out of their home, and he went to work. When he was 9, his mother died. He lost his job as a store clerk when he was 20. He wanted to go to law school, but he didn't have an education. At age 23 he went into debt to be a partner in a small store. Three years later the business partner died, and the resulting debt took years to repay.

When he was 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him, and she turned him down. He later married another woman. He decided to go into politics. On his third try he was elected to Congress, at age 37, but then failed to be re-elected. This man's son died at 4 years of age. When this man was 45, he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost. At age 47 he ran for the vice-presidency and lost. But at age 51 he was elected president of the United States.

The man was Abraham Lincoln, a man who learned to face discouragement and move beyond it. Did you know it was Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of the War Between the States, in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving? Lincoln had learned how important it is to stop and thank God in the midst of great difficulties.

The Lord addresses each one of us in this verse from 1 Thessalonians. You give thanks in all circumstances. If Martin Rinkart could give thanks, if the Pilgrims could give thanks, if Abraham Lincoln could give thanks, then we too can give thanks.

Yet, giving thanks is not something that most of us are very good at. Back in the early 1930s, William Stidger was seated one day with a group of friends in a restaurant. Everyone was talking about the Depression: how terrible it was, the suffering people, rich people committing suicide, the jobless, the whole mess. The conversation got more miserable as it went on. There was another minister in the group, and he suddenly broke in and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do, because in two or three weeks I have to preach a sermon on Thanksgiving Day. I want to say something affirmative. What can I say that's affirmative in a time of world depression like this?" As the minister spoke, Stidger said it was like the Spirit of God spoke to him: "Why don't you give thanks to those people who have been a blessing in your life and affirm them during this terrible time?"

Stidger began to think about that. The thought came to his mind of a school teacher very dear to him, a wonderful teacher of poetry and English literature from years ago who had gone out of her way to put a great love of literature and verse in him. It affected all his writings and preaching. So he sat down and wrote a letter to this woman, now up in years. It was only a matter of days until he got a reply written in a feeble scrawl. "My Dear Willy," Stidger says that at that time he was about 50 years of age and bald, and no one had called him Willy for a long time, so just the opening sentence warmed his heart. The letter read as follows: "I can't tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn lingering behind. You'll be interested to know that I taught school for more than fifty years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has done in many years."

Did you catch that? Stidger's note was the first note of appreciation she had ever received for all her years of teaching. We aren't very good at saying thanks are we? And if that English teacher longed to hear a word of thanks, how much more do you think our God longs to hear a word of thanks for his many blessings to us?

One Thanksgiving a family was seated around their table, looking at the annual holiday turkey. From the oldest to the youngest, they were to express their praise. When they came to the next-to-the-youngest in the family, he began by looking at the turkey and expressing his thanks to the turkey, saying although he had not tasted it yet, he knew it would be good. After that rather novel expression of thanksgiving, he began with a more predictable line of credits, thanking his mother for cooking the turkey and his father for buying the turkey. But then he went beyond that. He joined together a whole hidden multitude of benefactors, linking them by cause and effect.

He said, "I thank you for the checker at the grocery store who checked out the turkey. I thank you for the grocery store people who put it on the shelf. I thank you for the farmer who made it fat. I thank you for the man who made the feed. I thank you for those who brought the turkey to the store."

Using his Columbo-like little mind, the boy traced the turkey all the way from its origin to his plate. And then at the end he solemnly said, "Did I leave anybody out?"

The boy's younger brother, embarrassed by all the proceedings said, "You left out God."

Without being flustered at all, the older brother said, "I was about to get to him."

That raises an important question. As important as it is to tell other people how thankful we are for them, are we ever going to get around to saying thanks to the most important person of all? Are we going to get around to saying thanks to God, not only on Thanksgiving Day, but every day?

It is amazing to me to note how many people truly do want to express thanks on Thanksgiving Day, but they really don't know who to thank for all of their blessings. You see movie stars interviewed on television this time of year. You see talk show hosts talking about Thanksgiving. And yet many of them don't even mention God, or seem to realize that he is the one who ultimately deserves all of our praise and thanks.

Perhaps one thing that would help us would be to sit down and make a list of the things we are thankful for. Then lift up that list to God in prayer.

One man made the following list of things he was thankful for on Thanksgiving Day. He wrote down: I am thankful . . .

1. That there aren't twice as many Congressman and half as many doctors.
2. That grass doesn't grow through snow, necessitating winter mowing as well as shoveling.
3. That there are only 24 hours available each day for TV programming.
4. That civil servants aren't less civil.
5. That teenagers ultimately will have children who will become teenagers.
6. That I'm not a turkey.
7. That houses still cost more than cars.
8. That the space available for messages on T-shirts and bumpers is limited.
9. That snow covers the un-raked leaves in the yard.
10. That hugs and kisses don't add weight or cause cancer.
11. That radios and stereos and TV sets and washers and mixers and lights can be turned off.
12. That no one can turn off the moon and stars.

Our problem is not that we don't have things for which we can be thankful. Our problem is that we need to cultivate more thankful hearts.

When and where should you give thanks to the Lord? The Lord wants you to "give thanks in all circumstances."

The great twentieth century British journalist, G. K. Chesterton, once wrote, "You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in the ink."

What a wonderful way of life that would be, if more of us would give thanks to God at all times and in all places like Chesterton tried to do.

John Yates tells the following story. He says, "I was on the football field at our local high school the other day, where my son was running cross country. As I watched these boys and girls, I was preoccupied with recent problems. I also remembered my cross-country days twenty-five years ago and naturally breathed a prayer of thanksgiving. The prayer was something like: ?Lord, thank you so much that I'm not running cross country any more.'

"Then I sort of loosened up a bit and looked around me. The sky was blue; the leaves were yellow; the air was crisp. I began to enjoy the beautiful day. I forgot my problems and quietly thanked God for the beauty of the world around me. My spirits lifted as I began to appreciate the goodness of God, right there in the middle of the football field."

We can give thanks to God at all times and in all places. And wouldn't it improve our mental, emotional and physical health if we gave thanks to him in all circumstances?

Why should you give thanks in all circumstances? The Bible says you should do so "for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." You should give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances because he commands you to do so.

What happens when you begin to give thanks in all circumstances is that you begin to recognize that God is in charge over every area of your life. When you thank the Lord in every situation, especially those situations which are problematic and painful, you are recognizing that he is ultimately the one that has allowed these things to come into your life. And by thanking him you show him that you trust him.

John Henry Jowett said this about gratitude: "Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic." What did he mean? He meant that gratitude, like a vaccine, can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled, discouraged spirit. Like an antitoxin, gratitude can prevent the effects of the poisons of cynicism, a critical nature, and grumbling. Like an antiseptic, a spirit of gratitude can soothe and heal the most troubled spirit.

The Lord wants you to thank him in all circumstances because it is the most spiritually healthy thing to do. The Lord wants you to thank him even for problems because he is at work in the midst of those problems.

Fulton Oursler tells of his old nurse, who was born a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland and who attended the birth of his mother and his own birth. She taught him the greatest lesson in giving thanks and finding contentment. "I remember her as she sat at the kitchen table in our house; the hard, old, brown hands folded across her starched apron, the glistening eyes, and the husky old whispering voice, saying, ?Much obliged, Lord, for my vittles.' ?Anna,' I asked, ?what's a vittle?' ?It's what I've got to eat and drink, that's vittles.' ?But you'd get your vittles whether you thanked the Lord or not.' ?Sure, but it makes everything taste better to be thankful.'"

Giving thanks to God in all circumstances just makes all our circumstances taste better. Perhaps that is why the Lord commanded us to give thanks. He knows that it is good for our souls.

Still, we all have the question: How can I give thanks in all circumstances? The answer is: Only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Immediately after commanding the Thessalonians to give thanks in all circumstances Paul says, "Don't put out the Spirit's fire." (1 Thessalonians 5:19) You need the fire of the Holy Spirit in your soul if you are ever going to be able to give thanks in all circumstances.

The story is told of two men who were walking through a field one day, and they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent that they wouldn't make it. Terrified, the one man shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We're in for it!" John answered, "I can't. I've never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "Alright," panted John, "I'll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ?O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.'"

The story is fictitious, but it makes an important point. We must ask the Lord to make us thankful in all circumstances. We can't do it on our own power. The Lord who sent his Son to die on a cross for our sins can certainly forgive us for our lack of gratitude, if we will only confess our sin to him. And the same God who raised his Son from the dead can give us power to give thanks in all circumstances. Why not go to the Lord in prayer right now and ask him for that power which he is so willing to give to you? Then you will be able, not only to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of the year in every situation.