The Challenge of Being Thankful (Part 1)

As a person with a “Bent” for seeing through things, it’s easy for me to be captivated by what’s out-of-order, missing or just wrong. It really doesn’t matter the subject or place I find myself, I can enter a business and I can quickly spot things that could be handled or organized better. When driving I’m a rules guy so you can imagine how easy it is for me to get captivated by what people should or should not be doing when driving.  It’s a “challenge” to be thankful given all the distractions in life.

For some of us, being thankful is a “Real Challenge” because the irregularities in life captivate our attention. Before coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, you can imagine how dark my mind was. I would wake up with a predisposition of being “Mr. Grumpy” and someone had to be pretty smart to convince me otherwise. By becoming a Christian I knew that I was now on Christ’s team so I needed to know the “Rules” of being on the winning team. What Does God expect of me? How am I suppose to think? How am I to “behave” with others, especially those I disagree with?

So, the place I knew to start was reading the Bible.  This is God’s “Play Book” and I needed to understand what He thinks and why. I was never a good reader in school, but I was always a person the was curious about how things worked. I knew before becoming a believer that many professing Christians couldn’t possibly know Jesus based how they were living.  I did not want to read someone else’s view of what God was.  I wanted to go straight to the source and read scripture.  As a young believer, I read constantly and it fueled my soul. It gave me hope, but it also exposed my own faults and weaknesses.

Here is one of those scriptures I came across that challenged my thinking and behavior. Unfortunately, many believers have been taught to just take this passage as a nice saying rather than a challenge to develop our attitude.

1 Thessalonians 5:18     “The Challenge”      

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

For a guy that prided himself on liking structure and rules this seemed impossible.  How can I give thanks in “Everything”? This is an impossibility, especially for a guy that has developed some pretty strong habits of behavior. How could God expect me to do this?  Isn’t he being to hard on people like me?

In the first year of my new faith I think I cried every day that I considered what a mess I had made of my life. Ok, multiple times a day I would cry because God needed to dismantle so many bad habits that I had acquired. Before becoming a Christian I had developed a real hard shell over my heart and soul. I did so believing I had to protect myself so no one could truly hurt me. Early on, I learned not to cry because I thought it showed weakness and no self-respecting man would allow himself such humiliation. It was for these and other reasons God was breaking my heart daily so he could put me back together again with wholeness. Only God can heal a broken life and heart.

The apostle Paul wrote about our natures being corrupted before coming to Christ and everyone knows changing any part of our nature can be a messy business. Too many professing Christians have never applied themselves to reading the scripture, which has the power to transform them if they would allow the Holy Spirit to do open heart surgery.

Ephesians 2:1-3        “Developed Nature”

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, [2] in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.                                            [3] Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,                        and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 

Many writers point to this passage to teach a doctrine called “Original Sin”, which they say shows we were born sinful because of what Adam did in the garden.  Yet, I believe this is twisting the scripture to make a personal doctrine. This passage of scripture says we developed a nature because of the activities we were engaged in. The word for nature in the greek means “Growth” or development. This puts a whole new spin on the cause of our failures. We embrace a lie and then follow the pattern the lie sets forth, just like the teaching of “Evolution” and the lie it promotes. It teaches that you are not a special creation made in the image of God, but an accident of evolution. When you teach kids they are not made in the image of God, but rather beings wholly evolved from animals you take the breaks off of behavior and kids start acting like animals. Sounds like today!

Let’s get back to the idea of a “Challenge of Scripture” and how it relates to behavior. As a Christian, I can continue to grow in my knowledge of God and his ways and then embrace what God says or I can just surrender to my “Old Nature” and old habit patterns. I could reason that I have never been able to live as God says I should so why try or believe God can help me to become what I have never experienced before.

Romans 8:5-6           “Choosing The Path” 

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. [6] For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 

Being thankful is not only right because of the blessings in our lives, but also because it changes our nature.

Look what Paul says in the book of Colossians about being and giving thanks.

Colossians 3:15      “CHALLENGE TO CHANGE”

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 

As a new believer and now an “Old One” I am still trying to develop a behavior of thankfulness. I know that with the Holy Spirit’s help I am better at it than when I first started. I know that when I “Allow” God to do his work in me I change. When I embrace the peace and trust of Christ my soul becomes “Centered” on his abilities and not so much mine.

As we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving consider this. God has called us to develop a thankful heart and lifestyle more than just in the month of November. We celebrate once a year to reflect and hopefully recharge our batteries to once again pursue the Holy Spirit’s help in being a thankful people all year-long. This article is focused on the “Challenge” and the next article will focus on the means to develop a grateful heart.

Questions:

1) Do you find yourself questioning scripture because it seems too hard a change? Confess your doubts and pray for clarity.

2) Do you find yourself drifting back to your old ways of thinking? Purposefully read scripture daily for encouragement & vision.

Choosing to be “Thankful” delights the Father’s heart!

Pastor Dale