Thanksgiving Requires
Courage
By Barbara Henderson
The spirit of thankfulness is a tremendous
gift from God. It is the beginning of
change for the better. It is the
beginning of a new and better way of living.
But, thanksgiving is also hard work.
It leads the thankful heart into an unknown future. To be truly thankful, requires that one
launch out into the wilderness without really knowing where they are going, or
what they will actually be doing. I
think that is why people hang on to grief.
Grief is a known element. Everyone
knows how to grieve and mourn. You just
bawl your eyes out, or keep a pained look on your face while you go about your
daily life. You focus on the past,
another known element, and shield your eyes from an unknown future.
Thanksgiving, on the other hand, requires
courage. Here’s why.
First, thanksgiving acknowledges your own
inability to achieve or gain anything without help from God. Thanksgiving tells you that the things you
have were not gained by your own hard work and perseverance. If you had gotten things on your own then why
the need to give thanks in the first place?
Thanksgiving is a tool by which a believer may rid his or her self of
pride. Thanksgiving leads to humility.
Somewhere in between thanksgiving and
humility is repentance. As you begin to
give God the credit for all your blessings, you become aware of more blessings
that you have taken for granite in your life.
You have a glimmer of understanding of how blessed and favored you are
with God. Humility begins to grow in your
life. From the extreme advantage point
of a humble heart, you begin to see how pride has crept into your life. You begin to feel the weight of burdens you
are carrying that you don’t have to carry.
At some point, you begin to repent of thought patterns and a life style
that thanks yourself for all your hard work and success. You become sorry for your sins. You come to an understanding that the measure
of success or failure is not what is visible to the eye. It is not in the measure of what you have or
don’t have. This requires a paradigm
shift in one’s thinking.
This attitude adjustment, this change in your
way of thinking, is not easy. In fact,
it is so hard that many and even most people turn back. They set their shoulder to the plow and start
out with their eye on the prize at the end of the row. But then, all the changes that thanksgiving
brings become frightening. They would
rather go back to the known elements of an unthankful life.
For those who persevere in developing an attitude
of thanksgiving and praise, there is a tremendous reward. That reward is meekness of spirit. Meekness is the most powerful tool a
Christian can have.
‘Meekness - Meekness is reliance on God
instead of yourself.
A mighty man
of God was Moses; yet Moses was meekest of all men. Now how can that be?
Simple. Moses, a former prince of Egypt, came to understand that through God
working in him, he could accomplish more than all the mighty armies of Egypt.
That is the meekness that we should seek. It leads us to understand that 'I can
do all things through Christ which strengthen me'. (Philippians 4:13)So, meekness does not mean 'I am a door mat. Come stomp on me!' It means that you have begun to understand that your success in any endeavor is not based on YOUR own abilities. Remember that Moses had plenty of natural abilities and talents. Yet, he set those aside in favor of reliance on the Lord.
Moses did spend 40 years in the wilderness caring for sheep between the time he rejected the power of Egypt and chose instead to be counted with the people of God. Like Moses, we may grasp the concept of meekness, but be slow to be able to fully implement meekness as a way of life. That means we should all get started working on fully relying on God instead of ourselves right away.
Right now, are you on the path to meekness; or, are you still trying to do all things through your own ability, wealth, or authority? Or have you set these things aside and chosen to rely on the ability, wealth, and authority of God Almighty?
No matter how great your personal talents and power, the arm of flesh will eventually fail you. If you were even greater than Alexander the Great, you would still eventually meet his fate. You would die, and your kingdom and possessions would be given to another mortal.
The inheritance God has for the meek is eternal. Reliance on God instead of your self is the path to success.’ (end quoted article)
This is just a simple explanation of the
benefits of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a process, not a holiday. Thanksgiving in your heart and daily life brings
changes. Some of the changes will be
hard. You can bet that some of the
changes will be very hard. They will be
so hard, than many will turn back from thanksgiving, and go back to living on
their own. These people may be saved,
but the joy of their salvation will be overshadowed with the cares of the
world. Meekness will elude them all
their lives. No matter what their
earthly success may be, it will pale in comparison to what it could have been
through meekness.
Perseverance in thanksgiving is somewhat like
Peter walking on water. When he kept his
focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, he stayed above the water. When he looked at the water, he began to sink
into the sea. If a Christian gazes on
the things of earth such as material wealth, hurt feelings, genuine grief, or
bitter disappointments, they are going to be overwhelmed by these things and
fall back into grief and things of the past.
Their only option for help in their distress is to keep their eyes fixed
on the Lord. And, I will be the first to
admit that it really ‘ain’t that easy’.
In fact, it feels impossible sometimes.
Thankfully, nothing is impossible with God. (Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23, mark
10:27, Mark 14:26, Luke 18:27 )
So,
there you have it. The question is, are
you one of the few who will be willing to set a course of thankfulness in your
daily life? Or, will you be one who
finds the road of thanksgiving to hard and difficult?
Barbara Henderson
