Wrestling With Thanksgiving

All Scripture quotations are from the NASB 1995 unless otherwise noted.

This is the time of year when we hear beautiful messages about expressing our gratitude to God. We are encouraged to remember His blessings and exhorted to renew our efforts toward being more thankful throughout the year. It's a sweet time of reflection, and we appreciate sharing it with our family and friends

Of course, living on a fallen planet, we all experience difficulties mixed in with our blessings. Thanksgiving messages often seek to help us gain wholesome and God-centered perspective on these things.

My late husband spoke often about the command found in I Thessalonians 5:18:

“In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

He would point out that it says to give thanks in everything, not for everything.

That makes sense when you think about it. We wouldn't want to thank God for illness, or the death of a loved one, or any other of the many forms of suffering that take place in this world. Those things are not good. But we can certainly thank God in the midst of those things, given the many promises He makes in His Word about being present with His children and helping us through any circumstance.

So far so good.

But recently I heard another message, spoken by a dear friend of mine. She pointed out that another verse, Ephesians 5:20, actually says,

“Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”

That's a different ballgame altogether!

It's one thing to know that I can thank God in the midst of any circumstance. It's another thing to realize that the Word of God commands me to give thanks for all things.

All things? Yep. “Always, in all things.”

My friend even pointed out Isaiah 45:7, in which God states that He is “the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

That's when I began to wrestle. I had to think it through.

First of all, am I supposed to thank God for my sins? Or the sins of others? Or attacks of the enemy? Or evil in the world? For this train of thought, I had to go back to the whole message of the Bible.

There are things that God hates. There is a need for a Gospel—for redemption—because of sin. God certainly doesn't ask us to call evil good, as if it doesn't matter. This “giving thanks always for all things” is not a trite “tra-la-la, everything's fine.” I picture the Son of God weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, or weeping over Jerusalem, as He looked at what sin and evil have done to the lives of those He created and deeply loves. I hear Him praying in Gethsemane, bearing the sin of the world, sweating blood, needing angels to minister to Him so that He could even be able to go to the Cross. I hear Him crying out from that Cross, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, KJV).

No, all is not well in the world, and we cannot call evil good.

Still, I am commanded to give thanks in and for all things. This is where the idea of a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” (Psalm 50:14, 23) really starts to feel like sacrifice. It's no longer a poetic idea. It's bringing before God the very things in my life that feel all wrong. It makes me look to God and worship Him in a larger way, being content with the mystery of His sovereignty. It teaches me to accept the fact that if I were in His very presence right now, in heaven, I would see all of this from a different perspective. I would understand what He's doing, and I would know that there is actually nothing to worry about at all.

So, this is a call to faith. It's cultivating personal trust in a Person. It's choosing to believe His love. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love” (I John 4:16).

It's as if the Lord Himself says to each one of us, “Will you trust Me? Will you believe My love for you? Will you rest in My sovereignty? Then choose to give thanks....in all things and for all things.”

Romans 4:19-21 points to Abraham, who looked squarely at the impossibility of his situation, and yet did not waver through unbelief. He grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. In the same way, the call of God upon us seems to be to look squarely at the very things in our lives that do not feel good—the list of things we'd rather see gone—and offer to Him a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for those very things.

But how can we bring our hearts to do this?

The answer is found in the truth of Romans 8:28:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

This is the only satisfying answer to the wrestling that comes from Ephesians 5:20 and Isaiah 45:7. We can “give thanks for all things” because “God causes all things to work together for good.” The God who “causes well-being and creates calamity” is the same God who causes all things to work together for good. Even things that are not good, He is able to work together for good.

This Thanksgiving, as you count your blessings and give thanks to God for them, it would be worthwhile to make another list. Think to yourself, “My life would be great if it weren't for…” List the things that don't feel like blessings.

Then go down that list and, one by one, thank God for those things. Thank Him that those things are what get your attention and help you know how much you need Him. Thank Him that He is sovereign and that He loves you.

Thank Him that He is able to cause all those things to work together for good.