The Reach of Our Thanksgiving - Part 1

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Gratitude often seems tied to circumstances, but not for believers in Jesus. Today, you'll hear how to apply a simply stated command, one that pushes the reach of your thanksgiving. Have you noticed that oftentimes God in the Scriptures will tell us something to do, but He doesn't tell us how to do it? For example, when He says we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit, period, no instruction. Or, love your enemies, no instruction. Or, to walk in the Spirit. In other words, you could just go through the Bible thinking about all the things He commands us to do, but doesn't give us any instruction. Now, it used to bother me when I'd think about, well, Lord, if that's what You want us to do, why don't You just say one, two, three points, one, two, three, like a message, and tell me how to do it?

So, I finally figured out why He wouldn't. Because God wants us to know Him, not just settle problems, not just answer particular needs that we have. He wants us to know Him, who He is, how does He operate, what are His ways, how does He think? So, the passage of Scripture I want us to read is just one verse primarily.

And He makes a statement and He doesn't tell us how. It's a very, very important command of God. So, I want you to turn to First Thessalonians chapter five. And Paul is ending up this wonderful epistle talking about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and how to live the life and when that day comes and so forth.

And he comes down to this last chapter and the last few verses are very short. So, he says, beginning in verse twelve, But we request of you brethren, that you appreciate those who diligent in labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work, live in peace with one another. We urge you brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.

That's a lot of commands, no instruction. Watch this one, In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Now, of all the things He told us to do in this passage, I would think that's the most difficult.

Listen to what He says, In everything, not some things, most things, good things, easy things. In everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Listen to this, This is the will of God, He says.

This is God's purpose, His plan, His will for every single one of His children. That is that you and I are to give thanks to God in every circumstance and no exception. What does everything include? Everything. So, that means all of my pain, hurt, suffering, sorrow, difficulty, losses, pleasures, in everything, I'm to give thanks. Now, He doesn't give us any instructions how to do that.

So, what is the key to that? If I'm to give thanks, as He says in every single thing, it's easy, for example, to give thanks in your house when there's a new baby born or when you have a new home or a new car and you're going on vacation. Lots of things to be thankful for. But what about the suffering, the heartaches, the trials, the difficulties, and things we don't understand? You have to put both those in the same bucket because He says we're to give thanks in everything. Now, that being the case, that means I'm going to have to face up to some things that I don't like, some things I don't understand, the things that don't seem like anything that God would do.

It seems so totally unlike God to allow certain things in our life. But He says whether I understand it or not, I'm to give thanks. Now, the question is, how does God expect me to give thanks for pain? How am I to give thanks for disappointment and hurt and separation and loss? How am I to give thanks for failure? Because you see, you read that passage and you say, well, that means for all the good things that God sends in your life, no, He says we're to give thanks in everything.

Now, why would He say it? I want you to see that God has many reasons. That is, this is not just one reason, but He has a whole barrage of reasons why He says we're to give thanks even in these difficult times.

And the first one is this. It motivates us to look for God's purpose in everything. If I am to give thanks for everything, then I'm going to be motivated to look what is God's purpose in this thing in my life that I don't particularly like. Secondly, it helps us bring our will into submission to His will, especially when there's a time of suffering and heartache.

God, I want what You want no matter what. Then, it reminds us of our constant dependence upon Him. In other words, if I am to give thanks in every situation, especially in those things that I don't feel adequate to face up to in life, it reminds me that I am in the process of doing so only because I'm trusting Him and dependence upon Him. Then, it helps us to trust Him when we don't understand why.

God, I don't understand why, but I'm going to trust You anyway. And so, it helps me in my motivation to trust Him if I know that I'm obeying His command by giving thanks when I don't understand it. It's essential to my rejoicing in the midst of suffering. In other words, if I don't believe He's in everything, I'm not going to rejoice, I'm not going to have in a real peace in the midst of things that are so painful and so hurtful. And of course, it gives our witness a greater impact. When you see other people going through very difficult situations and they're able to thank God and they say to you, and I don't like this, it's one of those painful things in my life, but I know that God's in it in some fashion and I'm trusting Him and I'm thanking Him even though I don't understand it.

That would impact anybody's life, especially people in the midst of things that are so painful and so hurtful and so hurtful and so hurtful and so hurtful and so hurtful and so hurtful, especially people, many people that I've met who've gone through things and I think, oh God, how could they ever survive in this kind of a situation? Then of course, it displaces my anxiety and frustration. And the result is I'm going to have a peace. If I can thank Him for it, I'm going to have peace within it no matter what I do.

And then of course, I'm going to have a peace with Him. And then of course, I'm going to focus on Him rather than on the circumstances. That is, if I am thanking Him, my mind is on Him, my focus is on Him, not on the circumstance. And then of course, likewise, it energizes us in the midst of a very exhausting situation. That is, if what we're going through is an emotional, very energizing about that.

I know that to be true. And one of the most difficult times in my life, when everything in me would say, sit down, stop, run away, give up, whatever, the most awesome, divine energy of God's strength to keep moving, to keep trusting, no matter what. So, when Paul said, in everything give thanks, he had some very specific reasons for it. And if anybody could ever bear witness and testimony, he could. Think of how many times he was in jail, imprisoned, chained to a Roman soldier. How many times that his friends abandoned him.

I mean, all the circumstances and situations. Now, what does he say in Philippian jail? He says, rejoice.

And again, I say rejoice always. What did he know? How could he have said, for example, I've learned to be content in all things. Only when he had learned to be able to thank God, whether he was sitting in prison or whether he was preaching the gospel, whether he was struggling for his own physical existence in the midst of a shipwreck. How can he be giving thanks to God for all those things?

Now, by now, you've probably thought of a few things that you haven't asked God to help you to be thankful. You've just said, God, why have you allowed this? I don't understand this. If you love me, you wouldn't let this happen. Why did you let it happen to my family? Why did you let it happen to my children? Lord, where are you?

And he's saying, where I've always been, right, living inside of you. And so, that brings me to the third issue and that is, what's the key? It's one thing to tell me to give thanks. When everything in me does not want to give thanks, I want to get resentful or bitter or hostile or angry. What's the key?

What is it I need to know in order to be able to give thanks when everything in myself does not want to give thanks? And remember what we said? We said, for example, that He may give us a command, but He doesn't give us a know-how, but it's in the Scripture and He wants us to search the Scripture. And if we search the Scripture and pray and ask Him for guidance and direction, He'll give it to us.

Well, here it is. Here's the key. And listen, without this key, you absolutely will not. You cannot emotionally or mentally, truly, genuinely give God thanks without this key. And here it is, one hundred and third Psalm and the nineteenth verse, the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. Now, if you don't believe that, you're not going to be able to thank God for everything. Because watch this, what this verse says, God is in control of your circumstance no matter what it is. He's in control of whatever's come against you, God's in control. Whatever's causing you pain, God's in control. Whatever's causing you joy and happiness and peace, God's in control.

Whatever has caused your friends to turn against you, God is in control. Whatever physical suffering that you're going through, God is in control. That is, there's not anything in the life of a believer in which God is not in control.

Well, the truth is He's in control of everything. So, when He says, in everything give thanks, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Watch that last phrase, in Christ Jesus, which means this is true in the life of a believer. If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you're living your life without God, you say, I think I can handle it somehow in some way, this is not true for you.

Because, you see, you're not going to give God thanks for the simple reason you're not a believer. He says, in Christ Jesus. So, what Paul is saying primarily here relates to a follower of Jesus, a person who's been saved, somebody who is a believer in Christ Jesus and His resurrection, power, and His death on the cross.

So, he says, in everything give thanks. Now, so that brings us to another passage of Scripture, which most all of us would say we believe, and sometimes we misquoted. So, I want you to turn back to Romans chapter eight for a moment. And Paul says something here that we hear misquoted oftentimes and so then they wonder why God doesn't operate the way they expect Him to. So, he says in the twenty-eighth verse of Romans eight, And we know, and I think, I hope, we know that God causes, He's behind all things, period. Now, that's not what it says.

Now, watch this. You'll hear people say, well, the Bible says God causes all things. No, it doesn't. He says God causes all things to work together. That is, He brings things together that we don't even think have any relationship at all. He causes all things to work together for good. Well, how could this be for good?

Keep listening. To those who love God, to those who call according to His purpose. So, we're talking about people who have trusted Jesus as their personal Savior. We can say we thank You, God. We can give thanks for every single situation. In everything give thanks. We're talking about those who have become followers of Jesus because in your life and my life, He's working all these things for good according to what?

Because of our love for Him and because we're called according to His purpose. And the truth is, if you're a child of God, you're only a child of God because He called you into salvation for His purpose. Somebody says, well, I'll just get saved whenever I please. No, you won't.

You can't. You'll only get saved when the Spirit of God brings to your attention that you need Him, that you're living in sin, that you're separated from Him, and that by His grace at the cross and His shed blood, He's paid you a sin debt in full and brings to your understanding what it means to put your faith in Him, trust Him for your forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. That's when you'll be saved. So, if you are boasting about you'll get right with God when you want to, no you won't. You'll get right with God in response to the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, He says in this passage, all things God causes to work together for good to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose. Because when He saves us, He calls us to fulfill a purpose that He is predestined in your life and my life. So, here's the key.

The key is simply this. I must believe that He is in absolute control of every single aspect of my life no matter what it might be. Now, there are going to be some things, for example, that I don't understand, some things that I don't like, but that's not even the issue. And when we say that God is in everything, that doesn't mean that He instigates, for example, a lot of things in your life and my life that we don't particularly like. He's not the instigator of sin. He doesn't initiate sin.

But He's working with all these things and I want us to see how. Let's say, for example, a person chooses to sin against God. God does not cause that person to sin against Him. Will He work in that person's life because of that sin?

Yes, He will. No matter what the issue is, in every circumstance, God is going to be at work. And He says He works all things together for good. That is, the question comes, well, does that mean He's going to work sin in my life for good? Yes, but I want to explain that because you don't just pull that out and say, well, that means it doesn't make any, it's what I do, He's going to make it for good. Sometimes He sends distress, difficulty, hardship, pain into our life.

Does that mean He doesn't love us? No. Is He still going to turn that for good? Yes. Am I to thank Him for difficulty, hardship, pain, stress, loss? Yes.

Yes, I am. And I can if I turn the right key, which is the only key it works, that I believe He's in control and He has a purpose for allowing these things in our life no matter what they may be or what the source of them may be, He is in control. Now, He's in control, now watch this, He's in control no matter what the agent or the source of that might be.

You say, well, what about my enemies? Yes, He's still in control of that. Does He allow our enemies to bring distress in our life? Yes, He will. Does He allow physical pain in our life?

Yes, He will. Whatever He allows in our life, He allows with full knowledge of where it's coming from, what the motivation was or is, and of how He's going to work it out for our good if we'll simply trust Him. So, nothing happens in your life and my life apart from Him. Once you become a child of God, mark this down, He encircles us with a shield of protection. And the only thing that can get into your life and my life as a child of God is when He chooses to open the door. Now, we'd love for Him to open the door for pleasure, good times, wealth, lots of friends, joy, good health. And then sometimes He opens the door for things we think, no, no, that couldn't be of God.

He says, oh, yes it is. Because you see, He has purposes that you and I don't understand. He's still in control. It's easy to understand that He's in control when everything is going our way.

We love to quote Romans eight twenty-eight and we think, oh, praise God, hallelujah, He's doing what He said. Then He chooses to open the door of pain and hurt and suffering and loss and disappointment and misunderstanding. Is He still in control? Yes. Is He still working something good?

Yes. He doesn't work things for good when I understand it. He works things for good. Listen, when I simply yield to Him and obey Him and trust Him and I'm willing to thank Him for it. So, no matter what you and I face, He is in control. And He has not come to the place where He says, well, that's too late.

No. God is in control of what's going on in your life today, right now. Thank you for listening to The Reach of Our Thanksgiving. 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.