A new habit…

This past Sunday, we attended a short prayer meeting after lunch.  Here in Thailand church always includes lunch and fellowship after church.  During this prayer meeting, time was reserved for telling about what God was doing in our lives and I was particularly impressed by one woman.  I do not remember her name.  She shared that she had recently been in two car accidents, the first was not her fault and the insurance paid to repair or repalce the car.  The second was her fault and the insurance would not pay. She offered thanks to God, not for her safety or for the replacement of the first car, but for the accidents.  Shortly thereafter, she learned that her insurance company would no longer cover her (because of the two accidents) and she would have to pay a much higher rate to be covered.  She gave thanks.  Her eyesight was giving her trouble and she had to go to the hospital and have her corneas scraped (her words).  She gave thanks.  What is interesting about this is that she was not giving thanks for how God was working, for His provision, or for His protection.  She was clearly giving thanks for the trials themselves.  Who does that? and why?

Well, according to Psalm 50, those who wish to prepare the way for God to show His salvation; those who want to see His deliverance.  I was reading Psalm 50 this morning and came upon these two passages:

“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” v. 14-15.

“He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” v. 23

Before I go on, I want to say that I know that there were actual, physical sacrifces offered for thanks that we no longer give.  I get that, but I still think these verses apply to us in a very real way.  Offering thanks (whether as a physical offering or in words with heart gratitude) is rarely a sacrifice when things are going well and the blessings are rolling in.  A sacrifice means giving up something, usually something we see as valuable.  What do we give up when we give thanks for all of our circumstances?  We give up the ability to complain or to feel bad about our situation.  If we are thanking God for the details of our lives, we can hardly turn around and blame anyone for them or have any kind of pity party for ourselves.  This may not seem like a valuable thing to give up, but how often to we wear our stress and the issues and problems we bear as a badge of honor?  Or hold on protectively to our pain and our wounds making them a part of who we are and how we live?

According to the Psalmist, giving thanks for our troubles, our trials, our illnesses and our battles, is a way to honor God.  And, it prepares us to see His salvation.  How does this work?  When we thank God for our trials we are acknowledging that we believe His words when He says that He works everything for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  We are saying, “I know you are going to use this for my Good and for your Glory, so thank you for this painful thing and for whatever you choose to do with it.”

Notice that there is a promise of deliverance from trouble.  God does intend to act on our behalf.  The question is whether or not we will honor Him when He does.  You may be thinking, “Of course I will!”  But what if that deliverance doesn’t look like what we expected?  What if we aren’t able to recognize God’s hand in the situation in order to give Him glory? What if we miss it?

The second passage says that our gratitude prepares a way, not for His salvation, that’s not dependant upon us, but it prepares the way for Him to show it to us, for us to see it.  I think our sacrificial gratitude expands and narrows our vision at the same time: narrows it, in that our eyes are focused on God and on what He will do and expands it to see the larger scope of what He’s doing in and through us and our circumstances.

Could it be that when I give thanks for all my circumstances, the fun and wonderful as well as the annoying, worrisome, hard, and painful, I am changed? That I am released from working out the problems, from worrying about them, and I can wait and see what God is going to do with them?  My eyes will be opened to His salvation.  Could it be that through gratitude, I will be able to see how God is saving, shaping, forming, building, moving, restoring, through and even because of pain, loss and trouble?

I don’t want to miss seeing what He’s going to do, so I’ve decided to make a practice of offering sacrifices of thanksgiving.  When nothing in my day is going as I’d hoped, I will give thanks.  When expenses roll in and money is scarce, I will give thanks.  When sickness and death come, I will give thanks.  When conflict and strife come, I will give thanks.  It will not be easy, but I want it to become my practice, my habit, my nature.

“Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18