Food for weekend thought--on THANKS!
So far, 2020 has been...hmm, well, like all of life--plenty of moments of joy but also of sorrow. And seeing how recently we've seen our share of dear friends and family facing hardship and challenges, I thought I'd just reprieve a little something from a lecture a week ago on thanksgiving. The lecture was on Psalm 34 in case you want to go reread it--which I heartily encourage you to do! As in all of God's Word, that psalm is filled with some mighty good stuff! Thank You, Lord, for Your Word!
At the end of the lecture, however, we focused on some practical suggestions for consciously and consistently putting more thanksgiving into our lives. So to help remind and encourage us to be thankful, how about an acronym (and I LOVE me an acronym!). We’re going to use the word THANKS. How’s that for original?! But golly, that should at least help folks like me who have the memory of a gnat to remember it a little easier!
Last time I checked, the word “thanks” begins with T, and T stands for THINK! What we put into our minds is critical, because what we feed our minds directly impacts our thoughts, attitudes and actions. But in addition to what we feed our minds, we need to remember that we can CHOOSE what we FOCUS upon in our minds. We can choose to marinate on worrisome thoughts or we can meditate on God’s Word. We have a choice about the thoughts upon which we will dwell!
Did you know, for instance, that at least 70% of the average person’s thoughts each day are negative and 85% of her thoughts are based on what she thought about yesterday. That means for most of us, our daily thoughts are on a repetitive negative loop! No wonder we’re discouraged, worried, or overwhelmed—because our thinking directly impacts every aspect of our lives!
But God’s Word gives us what is both a command and a prescription for those negative repetitive thoughts which do nothing but harm us, worry us, and rob us of joy, peace, and sleep! We’re commanded in 2 Cor.10:5, to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” And throughout both the Old and New Testament, we’re also commanded to thank and praise God in all things. That means we’re to take our thoughts captive, and we can choose thoughts of gratitude and praise!
There are countless examples throughout the Psalms, but here are a few examples from the New Testament: Phil.4:4-6: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Or Col.3:16-17, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Or one of my all-time favorites, I Thess.5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (We’re always wondering what God’s will is for our lives—well, here’s one very clear answer to that question—give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will in Christ Jesus for you!)
So we first need to THINK—meaning stop, notice our thoughts, and consciously think to replace our negative thoughts with the positive of God’s Word and with the wonderful positive of thanksgiving and praising.
We all have the choice. We can take our thoughts captive—so THINK and when that negative thought enters, immediately interrupt that negative loop, and choose instead to think about all the reasons for thanksgiving in your life and start thanking the Lord!
By the way, thinking also includes REMEMBERING! In order to be thankful, you have to think about and recall what's happened or has not happened that are reasons for thanksgiving. We can’t be thankful for God’s gifts to us last week if we fail to remember them. So think and remember God’s goodness and faithfulness.
And this is important—the reasons for thankfulness most definitely do NOT have to be big things! Yeah sure, we’re all thankful for the big answers to prayer or the big amazing blessings that come into our lives. But most of the time, it’s the simple things, the simple daily gifts that God sends that bring us the most joy. The smell of freshly baking bread, the hug of a friend, the uplifting text when we’re discouraged, the sun on our face, the sound of a favorite song, the happy greeting from our dog, the gift of laughter. Remembering fuels rejoicing. So pause to think and to remember so that you can start thanking and rejoicing!
Next we come to H for HABIT—as in get in the habit of not just thinking about your reasons for thanksgiving, but also get in the habit of WRITING them down. It’s not enough just to think about why you’re thankful; we remember best when we write things down! Writing it down imprints it on our memory and helps us establish a habitual mindset of gratitude. So establish the habit of writing down—or in some way recording—the things for which you’re thankful!
A is for ALWAYS. Scripture commands us repeatedly to give thanks in ALL circumstances, to rejoice ALWAYS and on and on—it’s not an every now and then proposition. Rather, thankfulness should be an everyday, every year, life-long habit and response.
This means, of course, that our thankfulness shouldn’t ebb and flow depending on our circumstances. Yes, I know that can be challenging, but I also know from personal experience that it’s also life-changing. There have been times in my life where the last thing in the world I felt like doing was choosing to be thankful. But in some of those darkest moments, when I consciously stopped and instead of despairing and worrying, choose instead to try to find something—anything—for which to be thankful, it truly transformed my heart and attitude.
There have been times when—thru tears—I doggedly shifted my mind and trudged ahead in searching for reasons for gratitude. When Janie was in a coma in the ICU, and I was feeling overwhelmed with fear and sadness, the Lord--in His great grace--spoke to my heart: "Start thanking me." I gritted my teeth and forced myself to begin a list. I began simply and very reluctantly with “Thank You Lord there’s a Starbucks in the lobby where I can get hot tea.” And then I thought of the nurses and how wonderful they had been, so I thanked Him for them…and very slowly, I began to get on a roll and found more and more reasons for gratitude even in that darkest of moments.
I’ll never forget it. That difficult time when the Lord—in His mercy and grace—prompted me to desperately try to find reasons for thankfulness when I totally didn’t feel like it, not only transformed me in that moment; it has literally affected me for the rest of my life. I mess up in a million different ways everyday, but I pray I will always be someone who tries to habitually thank and praise God.
So we’ve got T for think, H for habit, and A for always. N is for NOTICE. This is a pretty simple but important one as well, because half the time in life, we walk around failing to notice and be fully present and conscious. We’ve got our faces in our phones, our minds lost in daydreams, or we’re simply busy and overwhelmed. But we’ve got to ask God to help us to keep our eyes wide open and notice all the gifts He’s constantly pouring upon us!
The other day, I glanced up on my walk with Bingley and saw a beautiful blue heron soaring overhead. He was magnificent! But if I’d failed to look up, I’d have missed him. And missed the opportunity right then and there to smile and thank my Heavenly Father for His amazing creativity in creating such a bird, for allowing him to live nearby, and for me to get to see him! We need to open our eyes and notice what God’s doing all around us!
K is for KILL—as in KILL COMPLAINING AND COMPARING and instead replace them with thanking and rejoicing! Seriously, what good does all that grumbling do? Or how does it EVER help to compare yourself or your life to anyone else’s? Not one bit! You can take it to the bank—comparison is the thief of joy. Always. So get off the dead-end, negative road of complaining and comparing and choose instead to replace them with thanking and rejoicing!
So we’ve got T for think, H for habit, A for always, N for notice, K for kill complaining and comparing, and finally, S is for SCRIPTURE! (Well, and also SONG!) You probably already figured this one out, but thanksgiving derives it’s fuel, it’s impetus, it’s reason, it’s source from the Scriptures! Renew your mind in the Scriptures, fill your mind with the Scriptures, meditate on the scriptures. When you do, you’ll have endless reason and material with which to thank and praise God!
I had to throw SONG in here as well, because music is such a gift when it comes to fueling our thanksgiving and praise! I’ve shared this before, but Amy Carmichael’s wonderful words bear repeating yet again. She’d always say that whenever she was frightened or dejected, “I sing the doxology and the devil flees.”
If you’re really discouraged or worried, put on some praise music! Sometimes, if I’m struggling in some way, I’ll blast God-glorifying music in my car or our home and start singing loudly along—it’s a game changer! Give your life a soundtrack of praise by keeping some great music readily available—it will lift your gaze and encourage your heart!
So how about a quick challenge to help encourage this habit of thankfulness in our lives? (You may already be doing something like this, but if not, what better day to start than today!) Go buy (or find at home) a small notebook of any kind. And then determine an approximate time each day in which you’ll write at least ONE thing for which you’re thankful! The goal is to (hopefully) get up to three (or so) a day, but let’s start small! That’s because researchers say that the best way to start a new habit is to begin small and then, Lord willing, build from there.
I’m overwhelmed if think I have to come up with and write about a bunch of things, but we can all write one, can’t we? And maybe we can eventually move to three per day! But if we only write down one thing for the rest of our lives, that will be terrific! Cn you imagine what a joy it would be to look back over that list many years from today?
Simple or profound—just write down whatever the Lord puts on your heart. Lord, thank You for the blue heron I saw in the creek. Thank You I was able to walk Bingley before the rain started pouring down. Thank You that our son is home for a few weeks. Thank You for that video of our precious grandbaby! Thank You my back feels better. And on and on! Even as I started my list, I got on a roll!
Let's ask the Lord to help us to establish this as a daily habit and to increasingly transform us into people who are so relentlessly thankful that we shine God’s love and splash joyful gratitude on everyone we meet.
“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” Heb.13:15
To God be the glory.
