Tag: thankfulness

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Happiness and Thanksgiving

Thankfulness is the secret to happiness. Think about it. No one who complains is really happy. No one who worries is happy. Discontented people are unhappy people. The way to be glad is to be grateful.  Gratitude depends upon one’s view of God.

Jesus healed a man of the dread disease of leprosy. The loathsome ailment had left him disfigured and forced to live apart from society. In America, sociologists tell us, we have a cultural bias against ugly people. Unattractive people are at a disadvantage when competing for the best jobs and promotions. This unfortunate man, because of his affliction, had a disagreeable appearance.

Jesus healed him. In Luke 17:16 we find the man “praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” Obviously the man was both happy and thankful. Was he happy because he was thankful or thankful because he was happy?

He was both thankful and happy because he had a God-centered point of view. He was praising God. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Some people are appreciative by nature, but some are not and it is these latter people who especially need God’s power to express thanksgiving. We should remember that every good gift comes from God and that he is ‘the Source, Support and End of all things.’ . . . . Life is a gift of God, and the blessings of life come from his bountiful hand.”

Some of the psalms in the Bible direct us to this point of view. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).  “At midnight I will rise to give you thanks because of your righteous laws” (Psalm 119:62). The last book in the Bible teaches us to “give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever” (Revelation 4:9).

I suspect the man was happy because he was thankful. And he was thankful because he knew his healing was a gift from God. Jesus had not only given him physical healing, but salvation for his soul. The phrase spoken by the Lord, “Your faith has made you well,” could be translated, “Your faith has saved you” (v. 19). There is evidence here that the man became a believer in Christ on this occasion and he gave praise to God.

It is a remarkable thing that this man was one of ten who were healed on that day. He alone came back to Jesus to say thank you. All ten of them were afflicted with the same disease. All of them had heard about Jesus and his power to heal. All of them cried out to him for help. All ten of them were healed.

But only one of the ten came back to Jesus to say thanks. As he did it he was overwhelmed with joyful praise to God. Here was a man who was God-centered in his thinking. Because of that he was thankful. And because of that he was happy.

George Morrison, the Scottish preacher, wrote, “If all that happens to us comes by chance, then of course no one can be grateful. Gratitude is not a duty then, because there is no one to be grateful to.” He went on to say that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, believers (like the man in our story) have  “been awaked through their Lord and Savior to a God whose name and character was love. . . .  The moment  anyone awakes to that and with heart and soul believes in that, then gratitude is born.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Alternatives to Worry

People are worried. Parents are worried about sending their children to school. Teachers are worried about the health risks of being in the same classroom with children who might carry infection. Many people are worried about unemployment. Everyone seems to be worried about the economic consequences of the pandemic.

Here in Oklahoma there is considerable worry about whether or not there will be football on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Ryan Aber, writing in our local paper said, “A fall without football, or even more a full school year without football, could be devastating to college athletics in the short term.”

Speaking of devastating, the effects of worry itself can be devastating. I am privileged to serve on the board of directors of  a faith-based counseling ministry. Throughout the last several months, our therapists have been busy caring for many clients who have been struggling with the emotional effects of anxiety.

Jesus’ words have been on my mind. To those who trust in him as savior, to those who call themselves his disciples, he said, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25) In other words, if we do not have the power to control a few minutes of time or a few inches of stature, it makes no sense to worry about the great issues (such as a global pandemic) that lie beyond the scope of our control.

In  a few sentences in this discourse, the Lord Jesus Christ repeated the statement “Do not worry” three times. As an antidote to worry, the Lord told his followers to think about God and to acknowledge his ultimate control over our lives. If we do this we will recognize that the God who feeds the birds and gives the flowers their beauty, is perfectly capable of caring for those who trust in him. “How much more valuable you are than birds!” Jesus exclaimed.

This is a reason to be thankful. “Your Father knows” (v. 30) what you need. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, commenting on the Lord’s Prayer, reminds us: “The preface to the Lord’s Prayer, which is ‘Our Father which art in heaven,’ teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.”

I need this encouraging word from Jesus.  “Your Father knows.”The collection of prayers called Valley of Vision has a simple prayer that is meaningful to me: “Teach me the happy art of attending to things temporal with a mind intent on things eternal.” That is a prayer worth praying, especially when life is full of distractions, disappointments and disruptions. “Your Father knows.”

So today I invite you to read Luke 12:22-34. Read it again as if for the first time. Our Lord’s words offer real alternatives to worry: meditating on God and his loving care for his children and thankfulness for his faithful provision for our daily needs.

“Thou hast given so much to me/ Give one thing more — a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me;/ As if thy blessings had spare days,

But such a heart whose pulse may be: Thy praise.”  (George Herbert)

Pastor Randy Faulkner