As a follow up to the Giving Thanks series, this is an article I received from a Koinonia House eNews. This is perfect example of thanking God for even what seems to be circumstances that are not good. As you read try to think the frustration of these women if they prayed for those fleas to leave and wondering why God was not answering the request.

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Thank You For The Fleas
from the November 24, 2009 eNews issue

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you."  - 1 Thess 5:18

It's simple to thank God when He does miracles and answers prayers just the way we want them answered. It's also pretty easy to thank Him when we can look around and see many blessings in our lives. When our situation seems awful, though, and we're struggling through tragedy or just plain hard times, it can seem hard to believe that God is really there taking care of things; it can be hard to say, "I know You love me. Thank you for what You are doing even now."

Jobless rates in 29 US states rose last month, with Michigan suffering the worst rate at 15.1 percent and Nevada and Rhode Island close behind at 13 and 12.9 percent respectively. In California alone, payrolls have dropped by 687,700 workers in just the past year. It's a very difficult time for a lot of people across America and around the world, and giving thanks to God may be the last thing in the minds of those who don't know how they're going to pay their electric bill or put gas in the car.

Yet, it's good to know that the economy does not have God worried. His arms are not tied. The One who looks after the sparrows is fully capable of looking after each one of us as well, and even the rotten things that happen in our lives are in His hands. Jesus says, in Luke 12:7, "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."

Jesus never promised us gardens of roses or even daisies in this life. He did promise he would never leave or forsake us (Heb 13:5).

Thank You For The Fleas:

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of a time she discovered that God was working even in the most horrific circumstances.

Corrie and her sister Betsie had been imprisoned by the Nazis for hiding Jews behind the wall of their Holland home, and Nazi prison conditions pretty well unbearable.

Corrie writes:

"Barracks 8 was in the quarantine compound. Next to us--perhaps as a deliberate warning to newcomers--were located the punishment barracks. From there, all day long and often into the night, came the sounds of hell itself. They were not the sounds of anger, or of any human emotion, but of a cruelty altogether detached: blows landing in regular rhythm, screams keeping pace. We would stand in our ten-deep ranks with our hands trembling at our sides, longing to jam them against our ears, to make the sounds stop.

"It grew harder and harder. Even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Every day something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy."

Yet, in the midst of the suffering, the women prisoners around Corrie and Betsie found comfort in the little Bible studies they held in the barracks. Corrie writes they gathered around the Bible "like waifs clustered around a blazing fire…The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the Word of God."

When they were moved to Barracks 28, Corrie was horrified by the fact that their reeking, straw-bed platforms swarmed with fleas. How could they live in such a place?

It was Betsie who discovered God's answer:

"'"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus." That's it, Corrie! That's His answer. "Give thanks in all circumstances!" That's what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!'

"I stared at her; then around me at the dark, foul-aired room…"

They thanked God for the fact they were together. They thanked God they had a Bible. They even thanked God for the horrible crowds of prisoners, that more people would be able to hear God's Word. And then, Betsie thanked God for the fleas.

"The fleas! This was too much. 'Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.'

"'"Give thanks in all circumstances,"' she quoted. 'It doesn't say, "in pleasant circumstances."  Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.'

"And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong."

It turned out that Betsie was not wrong; the fleas were a nuisance, but a blessing after all. The women were able to have Bible studies in the barracks with a great deal of freedom, never bothered by supervisors coming in and harassing them. They finally discovered that it was the fleas that kept those supervisors out.

Through those fleas, God protected the women from abuse and harassment.  Dozens of desperate women were free to hear the comforting, hope-giving Word of God.  Through those fleas, God protected the women from much worse things and made sure they had their deepest, truest needs met.

We all have "fleas" in our lives. We all have those things that we can see no use for, things that are obviously horrible, unpleasant, painful things that we want gone. No life is free of "fleas", but if Corrie and Betsie can be our examples, God can use even these nasty insects for our protection and blessing. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, let's thank God for His constant care and provision, and for His hidden blessings that come in ways we can easily overlook.

Finally, we come to the difficult part of this giving thanks series. You may say to yourself, “Sure there are many things which we can give thanks for. Okay, I see how this is important, and I can see there are many ways in which I can do it. But, how can I always give thanks to God in all things?”

There are many unpleasant, hurtful, evil things that happen in this world. There are wars, poverty, hunger, sicknesses, deaths, injustices, and just plain evil in this world.  Am I really expected to give thanks to God for such things? The answer appears to be yes. 1 Thess. 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

The Scriptures constantly remind us that we are to live by faith: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). When we respond to God with a spirit of thanksgiving – even in times of difficulty – we are demonstrating our faith.

Several years ago now, my wife and I went though the most difficult time in our marriage. It was a very painful and strenuous time for us, and it did not look like we were going to make through. Our lives were thrown upside down, and we were being painfully humbled. During two weeks that we were living apart I remember going to God with my pain and expressing my sense of hopelessness. As I was praying I remembered the command to thank God for everything. I did not want to. My whole world was collapsing. How could I ever thank God for something as terrible as that?

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” God said He would work through all things for good for those who love Him. Do you believe this? If you do, then you can logically acknowledge the reasonableness of God’s command to always give thanks.

Although I did not feel like it could work out for good, I decided to trust God and hold onto His promise. I thanked God for taking me through a very difficult and painful time, even though I did not know how it could turn out good.  Thankfully, now I can look back and see many wonderful things God gave to us through that time and can trust more good is still going to come through it.

By thanking God in the midst of circumstances that seems awful, we are saying to God, “God, I do not see You in this, but I trust You know what You are doing and can make this good.” And, by saying this we open ourselves up to hear what Jesus is doing and to experience two of God’s wonderful gifts.

When there are difficulties in our lives, we give them to God with thanksgiving, and He will give us supernatural peace, peace that makes no sense to the world, because it comes from God (Phil. 4:6-7). We cannot manufacture this peace through feelings or emotions. The peace of Christ is a supernatural peace which we can experience only as Jesus lives His supernatural life in and through us. And in order to experience the spiritual privilege of that peace, we must be thankful – thankful by faith.

Thanking God by faith not only leads to God’s peace, it also leads to God’s joy. When we thank God by faith for every circumstance in our lives, we turn our eyes off whatever is troubling us to look to God who will work everything out for the good. Since we are assured from the Bible that God loves us, we would be very foolish indeed to worry about our problems, cares and tribulations even for a few moments. Cast them upon the Lord as soon as they are brought to your attention for He cares for you.

By looking to Jesus instead of our circumstances we will learn to experience joy in the midst of any situation, because joy does not come from the events of our lives. Things do not have to be going well to experience joy.  Joy comes from the work of the Holy Spirit that is set before us. Whenever we turn our eyes off Jesus, we stifle the work of the Holy Spirit.

In Hebrews 12:2 we are commanded to be continually “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” It would have been devastating if Jesus went to the cross and could only see the pain and the suffering of what lay ahead. This verse says that it was for the joy that was set before Him that He endured the cross. – We are to do the same.

I want to add that Jesus did not have to come to the earth, and He did not have to go through the excruciating suffering of the cross. Jesus chose to do these things because He loves you and there was no other way for you to experience His love.

Imagine a husband coming home with a bouquet of beautiful flowers for his wife. Would she want to thank him for them?

It depends.  It depends on why he got you the flowers, correct? Is he trying to get himself out of the doghouse? [~thanks~] Or, is he just looking for a way to express his love for you in a way you would appreciate? [! Oh, thank you so much, sweetie! They’re beautiful! (KISS)]

Jesus was not trying to get out of the doghouse. He did not have to. His love for us was His motivation. He deserves our undying gratitude and allegiance.

This is why we are to be thankful. He deserves it. By always thanking God for everything, we are able to refocus our eyes on the One who loves us and is taking us through to the other side.

Thanksgiving should be the motivation for everything we do. We can express our gratitude to God through our prayers, songs, tithing, witnessing, loving, and living our lives like Christ. Jesus considered this very important, and when we do it we can experience God’s supernatural peace and joy. This is an overflow of living by the Spirit. This is an overflow of living like Christ.

Jesus wants us to give Him thanks. It pleases Him. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18). And, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).

If you trust and obey Jesus, He will enable you by the power of the Holy Spirit to do what He has commanded you to do. Only a person living by the Spirit can experience such joy and peace and demonstrate such a thankful attitude. A thankful heart is a characteristic of the life lived by the Spirit, a life lived like Christ.

image courtesy of The Jesus Storybook Bible

Over this Thanksgiving weekend, I am looking at a few posts on giving thanks. Yesterday we looked at ways we can give thanks and today we look at its importance. So, why is giving thanks important? To answer this question I will look at the account of Mary anointing Jesus feet in Bethany from Mark 14:3-9.

The first reason is Jesus thinks our gratitude is important. Mary, out of love for Jesus, bathes Him with perfume. Some of those there criticize her for the waste, but Jesus not only accepts the offering, He praises what she has done.

Jesus says that Mary had done a good work for Him. Another translation says that Mary had done a beautiful thing. Jesus also made an astounding statement that wherever the gospel is preached, what Mary had done will also be told. Jesus saw this display of gratitude as very important.

The second reason giving thanks is important is our gratitude leads us to do things for Jesus. Jesus says that Mary has done what she could. Out of love and appreciation for our Lord Jesus Christ, we follow Him and obey Him. We spend time with Him in prayer and reading the Bible.  We come to church and are connected to the body of Christ.  We give our entire lives to Christ because we are grateful for everything He has done to bring us to God.

The third reason giving thanks is important is the greater our gratitude the more we will experience of God. Mary emptied an extremely expensive flask of perfume on Jesus. The flask cost three hundred denarii, a year’s wage. That is why there were some who were greatly opposed to Mary’s display.

John’s account of this story tells of how Mary also poured the fragrance on Jesus’ feet and wiped it in with her hair. In the middle of a social event Mary comes in and breaks the flask (not going to save any) and bathes Jesus from head to toe with a flask full of expensive perfume, then wiping it on his feet with her hair, and the aroma filled the entire room. Mary’s heart overflowed with love and appreciation for Jesus that she was willing to give everything and anything for Him.

“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” – Luke 7:47

The first post in this series I showed how Ephesians 5:18-20 shows that giving thanks is a natural overflow of being filled with the Spirit. I will go farther here and say that giving thanks is pre-requisite to being filled with the Spirit. As you give thanks you are acting out by faith that you are filled with the Spirit.

The next post will look at the difficult part of giving thanks when you do not want to.

Image courtesy of Passion 268 Blog

As I mentioned in the last post I will be looking at three questions regarding giving thanks. 

1. In what ways do we give thanks?
2. Why is giving thanks important?
3. How do we give thanks even in difficult situations?

The first question is in what ways do we give thanks. The most common answer is to give praise to God. “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp” (Psalm 147:7). “With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: ‘He is good; his love to Israel endures forever’” (Ezra 3:11).

Throughout the Old Testament we see examples of people expressing their thanks to the Lord through songs or prayers.

• Abraham gave thanks to the Lord at Shechem after God showed him the land he was to inherit,
• The Israelites sang to the Lord after He lead them through the Red Sea,
• David lead a procession of singing and dancing in bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem,
• Solomon praised God at the dedication of the temple,
• Daniel praised God for interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream,
• King Nebuchadnezzar wrote a chapter in the book of Daniel to praise God for humbling him,
• And Jonah while in the big fish praised God for saving him.

Then, of course, there is the book of Psalms, a whole book dedicated to songs to sing to the Lord.  There are songs to thank God for victories, for protection, for remembering His goodness, for His forgiveness, for anything and everything, songs of praise to God.

We do not have to be eloquent in our praise of God.

• A simple prayer of thanks for the food God has provided you to eat is pleasing unto the Lord.
• At night, a quick list of thanks for the events of your day is pleasing unto the Lord.
• In the morning, your gratitude for the night’s sleep is pleasing unto the Lord.
• And, of course, thank God for every answered prayer.

We do not have to impress God with our words. We never could impress Him that way. Our words of thanksgiving refocus our hearts and minds on the great things He has done for us.

Songs of praise and worship help remind us of things we are thankful for. As we read the book of Psalms we can say, “Yes, thank You God for making me. Thank You for loving me. Thank You for never stopping loving me. Thank You for providing for me…” And the list goes on.

Songs of praise in church can also put words to the feeling in our hearts. Many people rob themselves of the joy of singing praise to their loving Father, because they fear their voices are not pleasant enough for God. Remember God made your voices, and He enjoys everything He created when it is given to Him.

The songs you sing to the Lord, the praise you give Him, energizes your spirit and your love for Jesus. Your focus moves from your feeble attempts to make a melody or remember the words and takes you into the very presence of God.

Thank You heavenly Father for accepting me into Your presence and loving me as I am, for loving me enough not to leave me as I am but calling me to become like Christ. You are my hope. You are my life. I love You.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” – Hebrews 12:28

Another way we express our thanksgiving to God is through our tithes and offerings. Paul told the Corinthians that their giving would result in thanksgiving to God (2 Corinthians 9:11).  Everything belongs to God and everything we own is His.  By giving 10% of what we make we are saying, “God thank You for providing for my needs.  I give You this portion as an act of gratitude for You to use as You will.”

Giving of our tithes expresses our appreciation and reminds us anew that God is the One who provides for our needs, not us.

Witnessing or talking to others about Jesus is also an expression of appreciation for what Jesus has done for us.  We have experienced the forgiveness of our sins, the release of our guilt, the newness of live, the love of God, and the joy of the abundant life, and we would know that God’s desire is for everyone to know and experience the same.

“God thank you for taking me from the darkness of my sin to the newness of your righteousness. Use me in any way that would allow someone else to experience Your love for them.”

Accepting one another (Romans 15:7), forgiving one another (Colossians 3:13), loving one another (John 15:12), and even imitating God (Ephesians 5:1) are each expressions of thanksgiving to the Lord.

Everything we do in the Christian life is an opportunity
to show our appreciation to Jesus for what He has done for us.

After the tragedy of the great Chicago fire of 1871, Horatio Spafford, a Chicago lawyer, arranged an ocean voyage to Europe for his family to get away, and he would join them later. 

But, to add to the devastation of the fire, the ship, on which the family sailed, the Ville du Havre, never got farther than halfway across the Atlantic. In the dead of night, it was rammed by another ship and cut in two. In the confusion and disaster that followed, Mrs. Spafford saw her four daughters swept away to their deaths. A falling mast then knocked her unconscious, and a wave freakishly deposited her body on a piece of wreckage where, later, she regained consciousness.

When she and a few other survivors reached Wales, she cabled two words to her husband: “Saved alone.”

Gripped with grief, Horatio Spafford took the earliest ship to be by his wife. When his boat reached the approximate spot where the Ville du Havre had met disaster, God gave him the inspiration and courage to write the following hymn.

It is Well with My Soul
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say:
It is well; it is well with my soul.

CHORUS:
It is well with my soul
It is well; it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials shall come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

But Lord, ‘tis for thee, for thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
O trump of the angel!  O voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

In the summer of 2003, I had the opportunity to attend the memorial service of Dr. Bill Bright, the founder and long-time president of Campus Crusade for Christ. In the service we had the opportunity to hear from people very close to Dr. Bright talk about his last days before his death.

Three years ago Dr. Bright was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis of the lungs. This disease deteriorates the use of the lungs and for most of the last few years he has had to breathe with the aid of an oxygen tank. In the end Dr. Bright only had the use of 30% of his lungs and lived in intense pain. And yet, whenever he was asked how he was doing, he responded, “I am rejoicing in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
 
What causes people in the midst of extreme emotional and/or physical pain to respond like Horatio Spafford or Bill Bright? Have these people really lost it, or have they actually found something more than we have ever really hoped for? Obviously, these men did not necessarily feel thankful, but something supernatural had taken place in their lives. What was it?

In Ephesians 5:18-20, immediately following the command to be filled with the Spirit, we are further instructed to be “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A thankful heart is a natural overflow to a life lived filled with the Spirit.

When the great leader of the Methodist revival, John Wesley, was a student at Oxford University, he had a conversation with one of the servants there which “convinced him that there was something in religion that he had not grasped.” The “janitor possessed but one coat and had nothing to eat that day. Even though he had tasted nothing but water, he was still giving thanks to God.”

Wesley told him, “You thank God when you have nothing to eat, and no bed to lie upon. What else do you thank Him for?”

The servant answered, “I thank Him that He has given me life and being; and a heart to love Him, and a desire to serve Him.”

That troubled Wesley, for though he was a student of divinity, he could not testify to an experience of God. But many years later in Wesley’s life when he could testify to such an experience, he became a catalyst for revival in England.

• Can you say that you relate to the servant being able to give thanks for all things that God gives you, no matter how small? 
• Or, are you more like John Wesley listening to this man with amazement at that type of relationship with God?

Only a person living by the Spirit can experience such joy and peace and demonstrate such a thankful attitude. It is God’s command for us to be “giving thanks always for all things.” Along with each command which God makes there is a promise, either spoken or implied. In essence, He says, “If you trust and obey Me, I will enable you by the power of the Holy Spirit to do what I have commanded you to do.”

“Giving thanks always for all things.” This is one of the key ingredients for the joyful Christian life. So, how do we always give thanks for all things? In the next three posts, I will look at the following three questions that will lead you to a greater experience of God’s joy and peace.

1. In what ways do we give thanks?
2. Why is giving thanks important?
3. How do we give thanks even in difficult situations?