Why Give Thanks?

11/23/2006

Why give thanks? We can answer that question right here and now…

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.” (Hannah Whitall Smith)

Wow, that’s a pretty good reason to give thanks each day. Who doesn’t want to find comfort in a world that can get very uncomfortable? I sure do!

Jim and I joke a lot about all the medications that are advertised on TV these days. It’s part of our “sick” humor…pun intended. It seems there are medications for everything that ails you, and on a lot of those commercials, they don’t even make it clear what the “ailment” is…they just want you to ask your doctor about it!

Then I saw it, the commercial that dealt with RLS! I knew that was for me!! I told Jim so, and we laughed again. Jim responded with, “Better living through chemistry!” You see, RLS stands for Restless Leg Syndrome, which I do have! I just didn’t know it was something that actually could be diagnosed, or even treated! I guess what I was most excited about was that I was not crazy! Other people deal with the same thing as evening draws near, as the body gets tired…they too have to keep their legs moving around to stop the uncomfortable feeling that can creep in at night. Just when you are exhausted, you have to move your legs, once again, to get comfortable.

And now, they say there is a medicine that can help. I don’t know, I haven’t tried it, but now that it had a name, it did cause me to look it up on line and find all sorts of information about it. All kinds of life experiences were shared, and different ways to treat it. Bottom line, it’s something that happens, and it’s a little uncomfortable! It’s not life-threatening, it just is…just another part of life that we deal with here in a fallen world. Our bodies aren’t getting younger each day, that’s a given! For now, I turn on an electric throw, wrap my legs up in it, and find comfort. No side affects either! Although my neighbor says I look like a burrito!

We all love to be comfortable, and that’s why so many won’t even travel. We want to sleep in our own bed at night, as we have heard from many who have no interest in living in an RV. I tell them we do sleep in our own bed each night… And then we can read in Luke 9 that Jesus didn’t even have a home of His own, not even a place to lay His head. And do you know what it says He did? “He said to another person, ‘Come, be my disciple.’” (Luke 9:59 NLT)

What a great offer!? He didn’t have anywhere to live, not much comfort to offer, but He was asking others to go along with Him. The man in this story didn’t seem too excited to follow a “homeless” Jesus. He put a condition on following Him. He said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

That sounds like a reasonable request, doesn’t it? I mean, he didn’t say he had to wash his hair first! He really had something that needed doing, but Jesus wasn’t accepting of it, He told the man that his duty was to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Now, we weren’t there, and we can’t know everything that transpired, but we can know that Jesus was not focused on comfort. He was focused on the Kingdom of God, first and foremost. And if this guy was distracted with earthly endeavors, Jesus was going to go on without him, and He did. In Luke 10, it begins with, “The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit.” Further down it says, “Don’t take along any money, or a traveler’s bag, or even an extra pair of sandals.”

That doesn’t sound like how most of us travel. I mean, Jim and I live in an RV that is loaded with everything we think we “need.” And even when we leave here, to travel by plane or car, or whatever, we pack a bag that has way too much stuff in it! We get some money together to cover the expenses, and we certainly take more than one pair of shoes! What if the ones we are wearing aren’t comfortable? Then we can change!

That’s not the way Jesus was calling on those in Luke 10. He said take nothing, and then He also gave the disciples instructions about entering a new town, who to stay with, how to handle it, accepting hospitality, and healing the sick. If they were not welcomed in a town, they were to wipe the dust of that town from their feet. Jesus was pretty specific about it all. He was calling the disciples to go out in faith, and what happened? They came back excited!!

When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported
to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”
Luke 10:17 (NLT)

Jesus wasn’t surprised. He told them, “Yes, I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning! And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy… But don’t rejoice just because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered as citizens of heaven.” Luke 10:18-19a,20 (NLT)

We can get distracted when things are too comfortable, or not comfortable enough. We can get distracted when things don’t go our way, and when they do! Life is very distracting from what’s most important--the fact that those who are believers in Jesus Christ are registered as citizens of heaven. That’s the bottom line of comfort. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what Jesus is calling all of us to…to that level of comfort each day, knowing where we belong and Who we belong to.

How do we find that comfort? I believe we find it in giving thanks, as stated at the beginning of this message. When we give thanks, we are focused on Who God is. Period. And that sounds easy, but it’s not. Not in the distracting world we live in. We are much more apt to go running to God with all our distractions in hand, all our worries on our mind, and all our needs ready to be laid out before Him. But I wonder, what do we find when we enter into His presence in this way…do we find an open door, or a wall of confusion and doubt that’s in our way?

“We are commanded to enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise, and I am convinced that the giving of thanks is the key that opens these gates more quickly than anything else.” (H.W. Smith)

Don’t we all want the key to Heaven? Of course, that Key is Jesus Christ when we leave this earth, but what is the key while we are still here? How do we, in our flesh and blood bodies, enter into the presence of God each day, spend time with Him, get to know Him, find companionship with Him, without the key that allows us into His Throne Room? It seems many of us are left outside, in the cold, without a place to lay our burdens down, because we lose the key along the way…in all the distractions…we forget Who God is, and many times we want only what He can do for us. And He is there, for sure, never doubt that, but are we? God’s presence is never to be questioned; He will never leave us or forsake us, but we can leave and forsake His comfort along the way.

After the disciples came back, all excited about even the demons obeying them, Jesus offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to His Father. It says He was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and He prayed, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.”

What was Jesus saying here? I believe Jesus saw in those called to be disciples, that when they were willing to depend completely and absolutely on God’s provision, willing to give up their comfort in service for Him, not really knowing what they would come across, and then excited at the results, that they had acquired the childlike heart God was looking for. And in that, they were finding out exactly Who God is.

In Luke 10:23-24, Jesus tells the disciples, “How privileged you are to see what you have seen. I tell you, many prophets and kings have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not.” (NLT)

They had seen healings, for sure, and demons being removed, and people being blessed, but in all of it, Jesus first thanked His Father for how He had revealed Himself to the disciples, because that was what was most important. Not what they had accomplished, although there were many great things happening, but for letting the disciples know Who was behind all of it and not only how amazing it all was, but how much comfort can be found in what they had seen and heard directly from their Father. Jesus’ heart was filled with thanksgiving for the wonderful gift that had been given to those who followed Him. The gift of understanding that all of this is great and wonderful, but it really doesn’t matter, because what matters is Who God is.

My sister called me this morning. She was so excited because she has been reading through the book of Ecclesiastes! That’s a fun book in the Bible, but probably one that can be totally misinterpreted also. You can’t pull one verse out and say, that’s the way it is. Solomon, if I understand it right, gets to experience everything this life has to offer, including great wealth and great wisdom. He’s the all around, “Been there. Done that.” guy! And what does he find when all is said and done? His final conclusion is: “Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person.” (Ecc. 12:13 NLT)

In all of it, he finds out Who God is. He finds out that everything is meaningless no matter how great, how awful, how successful, how tragic, how anything it is--without God, forget it! Give it up! There is nothing to depend on! No reason to even be here!

Oh we can argue different aspects of everything, we all have different opinions about just about everything on this earth, but as Solomon said, “But, my child, be warned: there is no end of opinions ready to be expressed. Studying them can go on forever and become very exhausting!” (Ecc. 12:12 NLT)

Isn’t that what we find when we go to God with all our needs and worries sometimes…I wonder if we come out any less exhausted than when we went in if we are not paying attention to Who God is in all of it? But if, if, we enter His courts with thanksgiving and praise, we are guaranteed a peaceful exit! Really! Guaranteed!

How, you might ask, can we I say it’s guaranteed? Not because I know anything you don’t know, not because I have experienced it, not because it’s something we’re supposed to do, although all of this may be true…but only because God is God!! He is! He will take the worst possible situation in our lives and make it seem small compared to Who He is. I’m not saying it’s a one-shot deal--that every trial and tribulation in our life will suddenly disappear, never to reappear again. When we leave His courts, we will enter back into the same world that existed before this time with Him. What I’m saying is that while we are there, and usually for a period of time thereafter, all will be well with our soul. And when it starts to grip us again, it’s time to go back and enter in again. In doing so, God is not torturing us, what He is doing is calling us to know Him, and allowing us to develop habits that will carry us through whatever it is we must face in this life. And I mean, whatever it is we must face. And through it all, the enemy is lying and scheming and screaming at us to keep us out of that place of thanksgiving and praise time with God, and he always will! It’s true!

In my heart, I want to be abandoned to God, more and more each day. I not only read the Bible and pray about this, I read other works from Christian authors who reinforce these beliefs, because I desire to know our Lord deeper and deeper still. I work at it, I find those who “have it” and I want it! I talk to friends and family about it until they’re probably sick of hearing about it, even as Jim had to pause the TV again last night to hear about some thoughts I had on the latest book I am reading. He is patient with me, and he loves God also, he just doesn’t need to hash it all over as much as I do! And the closer I get to “it,” the farther away I feel from ever really grasping the greatness of God. God is so deep, so wide, so high, so long, that it is just not possible, except…except, to acknowledge above all else that God is God. And rest in that.

But even in that, the devil will lie, and just the other day, he had me for half a second. The enemy crept into the midst of my thoughts and my desires to be abandoned to God, and to trust Him in all things, and the devil said, “Yeah, but what if something really big happens? This won’t work…” And for half a second, maybe even less, I fell for it. I started to doubt. I started to wonder if God’s Truth would stand up against something really terrible happening in my life……………………long pause here, because it is so LUDICROUS! That’s the craziness of the enemy that we will fall for, even when we know better--and after about half a second had passed, and I thought about our child having endured five and a half years of battling cancer, then watching him die, and then living without him for the past five years, I came back to my senses and put the devil back in his place!!

God is God! When we enter into His courts with thanksgiving and praise, each time we come away a slightly changed person. And each time we do this, we come to know God more, to know what is possible when He fills our hearts, instead of the lies of the enemy filling our minds, and we find what true comfort is in this life when all else has been stripped away.

God is not a genie in a bottle that we rub up against and make three wishes to. He is our Father, seated on His Throne, with Jesus at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit living inside of us--a three-part harmony that plays out perfectly in our lives—not because we are perfect, or our lives are perfect, but because God is perfect! And when we are with our Father, giving thanks to Him, we will rest in His perfection.

We’re a quick fix society. We want to do things once, and be done. We want to get through things as quickly as possible, and move on. Just this last week, our RV has been hooked up to Direct TV DVR (Digital Video Recorder). Now, I’m not a huge TV watcher, but this is good stuff! I told Jim that I never want to watch another commercial, ever again! I’m catching on quickly here! Whatever we are watching, if we will just wait a few minutes, if we can possibly stand the wait…we can then watch live TV and are able to pause it, fast-forward through it and skip anything that’s not interesting! We don’t even have to set it up before hand. If we are tuned in, and get a phone call or something, we can just go back to where we were and pick it up from there--and we thought video taping was an awesome invention!!

This is the world we live in, and it’s becoming more so! I used to think that instant-messaging was the greatest thing since the invention of electric blankets! But that is a thing of the past now. Why use free instant messaging that has to be typed out on a computer, and then wait for a reply, when we can have mobile-to-mobile cell phone usage 24 hours a day? Most have even transferred the instant messaging to their phones now; I just haven’t gotten into that yet. We live in a society where technology advances so quickly that by the time we purchase something, it’s almost obsolete already. Did you see the huge fever over the Play Station Three that just came out? People waited in line for three days for that!

Is it any wonder that God gets overlooked, under-rated, and our time with Him rushed through? It’s no wonder at all--it’s to be expected, it’s exactly what the enemy wants, and far too many times we miss the greatest excitement that’s available to us as believers! That same excitement that the disciples shared with Jesus when they came back after being out and about when they exclaimed, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” And then Jesus, taking it even further in telling the disciples it was not only in what they had done, it was in Who God is and the eternal life He is offering to them! Things even prophets and kings longed to see but could not. (Luke 10:23-24)

And that is what we have been invited into, when we enter God’s courts with thanksgiving and praise. The very thing that Jesus thanked His Father for--things hidden from those who “think themselves so wise and clever.” A peace that surpasses understanding, because all this…is not all there is.

“Sometimes it may be that you feel too disheartened to pray; then try giving thanks instead; and, before you know it, you will find yourself ‘glad’ in the multitude of his loving-kindness and His tender mercies.” (H.W. Smith)

When we enter into God’s courts with thanksgiving and praise, we will see through all the junk, and right into the heart of God who loves us, and the junk will fall away. There’s no better place to be when the world hurts, when it disappoints, when it seems chaotic. God wants us to practice going to Him each day, so that we will come to know Him, and never forget His comfort is there for us, for all of eternity.

We had video tapes, now we have DVR’s and Tivo’s, and probably a number of other devices that bring us exactly the shows we desire when we desire them, but God is the Master of all masters when it comes to technology. His technology is supernatural, it never fails, and it can’t be improved upon. It will never be obsolete, and it is free!

Sign me up today!

Diane