Happy Thanks-Living
When despair tries to take me under...I choose life.
When I wonder what God could possibly be thinking...I choose trust.
When I desperately want relief from unrelenting reality...I choose perseverance.
When I feel oppressed by my disappointment and sorrow...I choose gratitude.
—Author Carol Kent, A New Kind of Normal
We just passed the three-year mark of some awful events here in our area. With such experiences, it is natural to ask: “Why does God cause things like this?” I don’t believe He causes these things, but I think He can use them to help us gain clarity concerning what matters. More than that, He can return us to a place of (excuse the expression) being “on fire” for Him when the fire may have nearly gone out. Tragedy can fan into flame or extinguish our fire for God. It’s up to us.
In Revelation, we see a church of people to whom Jesus wrote a letter, and their fire for Him was barely smoldering. Jesus put it this way to the church at Sardis:
“‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. ‘Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God’” (Rev. 3:1-2).
In other words, “Fan the flame of your faith until it burns brightly!”
We are in the midst of another challenging time in our world. This Thanksgiving season may serve as an excellent time to begin the process of spiritual resuscitation. It is one of the best times to refocus on God and all He has done. So why not start on the right foot this season by acting on the holiday’s name: Thanks-giving. Use it as a verb. Make it a lifestyle. Call it “Thanks-living!” Live a life of gratitude.
Conscious giving of thanks can begin to fan your flame into a raging fire for Jesus, a fire that does not destroy but that brings hope to you and those who have been through tough times. Thanks-living can return what calamity might have stolen and reminds us we serve a good, giving God.
Don’t let the flame of faith go out. Joe Stowell, of Moody Bible Institute, relates a story about the Greeks, who ran a race in their Olympic games that was unique:
“The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him.” (J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 32)
Abraham Lincoln declared that “the last Thursday of November” should be observed as “a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.” The date was October 3, 1863, right in the middle of the worst, most unimaginable circumstances in which a president could find himself, a country at war—with itself! Yet, amid the horrific Civil War, Lincoln saw it as a priority to set aside time to show gratitude to God.
Sometimes, the worse the circumstances, the better the time to remind ourselves how good God is. When there is loss, it is often an excellent time to be reminded of what we can’t lose in Christ. The best response is to give thanks. The best life is to live thanks. Happy Thanks-living!
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” —Psalm 104:4