It is Good to Give Thanks to God - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, November twenty-fifth. It's hard to give thanks when your world seems to be spinning out of control. Today, you'll be motivated to praise the Lord even in the most difficult situations. The Bible says it is good to give thanks to the Lord.

Now, since God is absolutely omniscient, knows all things, absolutely perfect in every area, if He says that it's good, then it must be good. And so, if it's good to give thanks to the Lord from His perspective, that ought to be a vital part of your life and mind. So, as you think about how much time you give the Lord in thanksgiving, sometimes it's rather convicting when you think about He's done so much for us, He does so much for us continuously, and yet we take it for granted.

So, let's ask the question first of all, why? Why does He say it's good to give thanks? And that is, He says it honors Him. To thank God honors Him. It glorifies Him.

It magnifies Him. To give Him thanks is an act of obedience, for example. And so, when you think about why, and what God has done for us moment by moment, day by day, over and over and over again, sometimes when we think about how little gratitude we show in return.

And when you think about the fact that you and I are saved, our name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we're the children of a holy God. And that we are absolutely secure in that salvation forever. That no one can ever take it from us. They may persecute us. They may kill us. But they can't take away our salvation. They can't take away our eternal security.

They can't take away our relationship to a holy God. How grateful we ought to be. And in expressing that, if we express it genuinely, it's going to bring Him honor. And it also is going to keep our focus where it ought to be. That is, it's on Him.

A third reason is this. And that is that it refreshes our relationship with Him. Spending time with Him and thanking Him is refreshing. It refreshes my spirit. It refreshes my relationship with Him. And so, when you pray and when you begin to thank God, what are you doing? Here's what's happening.

This intimate relationship grows and grows and grows. You are thanking God. You're honoring Him. You're praising Him. You're recognizing Him.

You're acknowledging Him for who He is. And what happens? Your spirit becomes refreshed. And no matter what's going on in your life, thanksgiving is one of the best ways to dig yourself out of doldrums and out of discouragement, despondency and despair and all the depression, all the things that people do a lot.

You know what? You start thanking God, it's hard to stay in a ditch. Somehow, something happens to you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually in every way. And so, that's the way He refreshes us. And so, when He said it's good to give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to His name, there are lots of good reasons. But one of them is it's to keep us focused, refreshing our spirit, reminding us of who He is and what He can do and is so willing to do for us. And so, when you think about worshipping Him, you're refreshing that relationship.

Because let's face it, there are times when you are required to do certain things in your life, or maybe it's in your business or whatever it might be, or maybe in helping somebody else just absolutely drains you. And so, what do you do? You start thanking Him, praising Him, adoring Him and worshipping Him.

However, do you see fit to do that? And your whole spirit is changed, refreshes our spirit when we begin to praise Him. Then of course, it reinforces our faith.

Because here's what happens. When you and I begin to thank Him, what do we usually think about? We think about things that He's done in our life. And sometimes, one of the best ways to strengthen your faith when you're facing a difficult situation is not to cry out, oh, God, strengthen my faith and help me, it's to start thanking Him. Lord, I just want to thank You that here's how You helped me there, here's how You delivered me here, You provided this, now I have this need.

You provided in the past, I'm trusting You to provide in the future. And what happens? Your faith begins to soar and soar.

You run out of the valley and all You've done sincerely and genuinely is to give Him thanks for what He's done in the past. And that's why God said to the nation of Israel and to the leaders, you tell them to keep remembering what happened at the Red Sea and remember what God has done for them here, He'll do there. And the only thing that fouled up God's plan for them is because they refused to believe Him. Remember, He took them down to Sinai, gave them the law, all these things they were to live by, took them up to the borders of the Promised Land and they said, no, mm-mm, we don't think so, we're afraid.

Now think about this. God opened up the sea, drowned all of the charioteers of Pharaoh and they get up to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they had a terrible committee, twelve to two, the two were right, ten were wrong, you can't always go by committees. And so, what happened? They listened to the wrong voices instead of saying, yes, Joshua, yes, Caleb, if He brought us through the Red Sea, He can take us into this Promised Land.

What did they do? They got their focus off of God and got them on giants. What's a giant compared to God? And when you stand down the banks of the sea and see it open and then watch it close up, that wasn't an accident. And when I hear some theologian has written, well, there was the times and it was the wind blowing and this and that, it didn't make any difference what happened and how He did it. God did it. And isn't it interesting that it happened at the most perfect time to open up and He closed up at the most perfect time to destroy all the Egyptians. It was the hand of a loving God who had promised to deliver the same hand of God that delivered them and promised that they would be delivered.

It's the same God you and I talk to. If He delivered them, listen, if He delivered them, the Red Sea, delivered Daniel from the lion's den, that, you know, when you think about God's deliverance, does He deliver everybody all the time? No, because all the disciples, at least most of them, were killed because of their belief. But they lived their life in such a fashion that it impacted the world in which they live.

So, it doesn't mean that life's going to be easy. But what happens is when you and I begin to praise Him, and we begin to thank Him for all the things He's done, and we look in the Word and we see how God's answered prayer here and God's answered prayer there. And you, in your Bible more than likely, if it's like mine, and I'm not saying everybody's ought to be like mine, but I'd simply say this. I got all kind of dates in here where God did this and God did that and God did this over here. And sometime if I find myself sort of thinking, well, now, Lord, I just get in here and just start flipping the pages. Yes, thank You, Jesus. Thank You, dear God.

Lord, if you can do that then in a situation that I was in, this is nothing. Then I'm expecting You to, I just know, God, You're going to work this out and You look at this particular situation and You, why do we say, for example, to go back and read, how did God work in Moses' life, Joseph's life, Daniel's life, Joshua's life? Why do we say go back and see what God's done?

Because it reinforces our faith. And then when you can look in your own life, now if you're eighteen years of age, you don't have very far to go back. But, when you get a little, a few years on, you can look back and, you know what, I think it'd be so foolish for me to doubt God. Absolutely foolish, have absolutely no foundation whatsoever for doubting God when I've lived long enough to see Him do this and that and go through this and through that. And that's why when people say, well, I'm just so anxious and so worried about something.

I can be sympathetic, but I have to work at it. And I do understand why. Because I've been through enough things that God was faithful every single time. I just want to say to you, trust Him.

Listen, this is sovereignty that you're trusting. This is the one true God. This is the omnipotent God, the omniscient God, the present God. That is, you're in His presence. You're under His authority and power.

And He has all that you need. Why are you going to worry about it? Why are you going to fret about it? Well, does that mean that all the problems will disappear?

No. He didn't promise that problems would disappear. Here's what He said, I'm going to be with you. And for me, that's enough.

That's enough that He's with us. And so, what happens when you and I begin to thank Him and praise Him, then it reinforces our faith and we begin to say, Well, Lord, what, I don't know why I should be all upset about this, because you don't change. And one of the attributes of God that to me is the most refreshing of all is the fact that He never changes. I look in the Old Testament, see what He did. Look in the New Testament, see what He did.

And so, if He did it for them and they didn't know Jesus as you and I know Him, how much more faith should we have to know that our Savior who died and rose again from the grave and sits at the Father's right hand, He's going to keep His Word every single time. So, we praise Him. And what happens is, our faith is reinforced and also it rejoices our spirit. And what happens is, as we've been saying all along, something happens to us.

We begin to thank Him and praise Him for what He's doing. And I don't know whether, do you ever sing to yourself or sing out loud at home by yourself and nobody's listening? Do you ever sing except in church? Think about it. Now, all the young people, they can, they got all these kind of songs.

They got them coming, they can just rattle them off. And yet, we're adults, we've been living a pretty good while. You mean we can't sing? We don't remember any words?

I bet you some words you do. For example, if I said, let's sing Amazing Grace. Well, most of us would know that, but there are a lot of people who don't.

And it's a shame they don't. Haven't been to church much or if ever. But you and I have the privilege of singing to Him. And what we're doing is we're just praising Him. And our spirit gets lifted. You ask me, do I sing to Him?

Absolutely. Sometimes I forget the words right in the middle of it, but I just move on and make up my own words if necessary. And because that's something in my spirit. And I've learned, listen, if you wake up and you just feel down, get your feet on the floor before you get up and start thanking God. Just start thanking Him.

And if you're married and if they're awake, okay, if they're not, just start singing something that you know. And here's one of my favorite ones, Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God. If I can just, if I can get that one going, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Then, He's been faithful.

What am I doing? I'm being reminded of how faithful He's been in the past. And so it rejoices our spirit. If you will try, if you have a hard time getting up, if you will start thanking God while you're still in the bed, I'm telling you, God knows how to awaken every facet of your body. Everything about you begins to be awake.

Why? You're praising God. And you see, He desires our praise. He desires, it doesn't have to fit somebody else's mold. Somebody says, well, you know, I couldn't get, I couldn't be lying in the bed and singing.

Well, why not? In other words, He could just leave you there all day half sick. But He responds to your rejoicing. And I've met people in situations and circumstances that could rejoice in the Lord.

And I think, Lord, I wonder if I could be that rejoicing as that person is. He meets us where our needs are. And so, there are reasons He's told us and said it is good to give thanks to God. And so, you just have to ask in yourself, you know, how often do you give Him thanks? Now, how are we to do that?

We said, here's why we ought to do it. And the reasons we ought to do it, it comes back to us, but the reason we ought to do it primarily is who He is, and He certainly deserves it. But now, how are we to, how are we to praise Him?

Well, naturally, the first way is to praise Him verbally. Thank you, Father. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus. And some of you, probably not too frequently do that, but think about this.

Let me ask you. When you are going down the highway or you come at an intersection and somebody almost slams into you, but they don't, what do you say? Thank you, Jesus, right?

Thank you, God, whatever you say. But you express gratitude. Now, is that the only time you do that? What about when you wake up?

You say, well, why don't you get off this waking up business? Because I know what it will do. If you will, listen, God will show you Himself. He will demonstrate His awesome love for you. He loves to hear you praise Him. So, you ask yourself the question, how do we express this gratitude? Well, certainly one of the ways is we express our gratitude to Him is by simply saying, Lord, thank You very much. You say, well, does that honor God?

Yes. Because what you're saying is you're seeing Him as the source. He's our heavenly Father.

He's committed to us and He's committed to doing the best for us at every turn in life. Even though He lets us go through things that causes us to suffer and hurt and have pain. You say, well, how can I thank God for pain?

Well, it's a good way to help get over it, number one. And didn't I, Paul say in Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians? He said, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. How can I give thanks for something that's causing me pain? Because, here's what he says, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who call according to His purpose. That is, if you're a child of God, you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, He's your Savior and your Lord, and you're going through a difficult time. You say, well, how can I give thanks? Because He says we are to give thanks.

You see, God knows the healing power, He knows the strength and the energy that comes through giving Him thanks, even when we're going through a very difficult and painful time. And so, we're to express it. And you may say, well, I don't know anything else to say, but thank You, God. Well, that's enough. Sometimes that's enough.

Thank You, thank You. And sometimes I find myself saying, thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus. If I've seen Him and I've experienced something He's gotten me through or a cross or whatever, I may just say, thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus. And sometime at night, when I don't, when I got too many other things in my mind, I pray and talk to Him.

And then if I still have a little time, you know what I do? Here's what I say, I say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And I'm really thanking Him at the same time. That's what I'm saying.

You know what, next thing I know, it's morning. There's power in that name. And the Bible says there's no other name given among men under these heavens whereby a man must be saved or can be saved and will be saved. We're talking about the most powerful name. His name represents everything that He is. Jesus, Son of the Living God, sitting at the Father's right hand, making intercession for you and me right now.

Ready, willing, available instantaneously to help us, strengthen us in whatever we are facing in life. So, we can sometimes just say it. A second way we express it is this, and that is by singing. You say, well now, you know what, I can't sing.

Yes, you can. Do you know when singing started? Think about this. Before man on earth ever spoke a word, there was music. God is the one who gave us chords for music.

Now think about this. Before man ever said a word, there was music. Birds created full men. Do you think birds were deaf and dumb before man came along?

No. They were singing. And you, if you've ever been around where a lot of different kind of birds are, and I have a friend of mine who's got fifty some bird houses, and you should hear it when they're all chiming in. Of course, you don't understand. We don't understand what they're saying. But I think, they're happy.

They just cheered up. I've got a bird out my, outside my bedroom window. I don't, I've never seen him or her, whatever she is. But, I can tell it's close to five o'clock. Because that's when the bird, and you know when we change the time?

Doesn't faze that bird one bit. Same time from his or her perspective. And so, when you think about bubbling brooks. They were running before man was ever created.

And you think about waves lapping on the shore quietly or crashing against the rocks. You know what? Before man was ever created. God loves music. He's the creator of it. And He wants us to express that. That's part of expressing our thanksgiving. There's all kind of music, and it's not for me to judge what somebody else may love about the kind of music they listen to. And everybody has their own particular brand.

But, when I think about it, sometimes I like different kinds just like you do. You think about the fact that God could give a lad, a boy, before he even reaches twelve years of age, the ability to write such awesome music as has been written in the past. But God gave us music, and part of the reason is to glorify Him.

In fact, that is the first primary reason for which He gave music, to bring Him glory and honor. He said, it's good to give thanks to the Lord. Well, how do we give thanks to the Lord? Now, watch this carefully, because most people would never put this in the category of thanksgiving.

The most powerful way to give thanks is to live a godly life. Doesn't the Bible say it? Jesus said it.

He made it so clear, crystal clear, here's what He said. If you love Me, you will what? Obey Me. So, if I'm going to give thanks to God, and it's genuine, it's got to come from an obedient heart.

There's nothing that matches that. Words can be nothing but the actions of obedience and the thoughts of obedience and the desire to be obedient to God. That honors Him. And He is honored by our obedience.

And when we live an obedient life, what happens? We honor Him. And when we say, thank You, Father, for whatever it might be, and that's my prayer, that You would live that kind of life so that You would be the most blessed possible by His loving, giving hand. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of It is Good to Give Thanks to God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.