It is
that time of year again, when everyone starts making their resolutions for the New
Year. If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you will know
that I do not believe in New Year’s resolutions. Many years ago the Lord showed
me that the resolutions that I did make never made it past the first few weeks.
Not only did they not “do” anything for me, I never kept them up throughout the
year. Instead He showed me a particular area of my life that was in need of His
grace and His touch. Around this time of year I get a word. A simple word that speaks
to an area of my heart that He wants to focus on in the upcoming year. This
year, that word came right around the time of Thanksgiving.
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You
see, I have fallen into the sin of ungratefulness. More and more I find my
words being ones of complaining, rather than ones of thanksgiving. On
Thanksgiving Day, the Lord sorely convicted me of this sin in my heart, and ever
since then I have been convicted of my ungrateful heart. You may have guessed
what my word for the upcoming year is, and if you guessed “Thankfulness”, you guessed right. However, this year, He gave me more than one word, this year He
has given me three. Yes, I know, I need a lot of work if I got three words! But
they all kind of go together- but I digress. Let me get back to the first word
He has given me- thankfulness. (I will discuss the next two with you in my next
blog posts)
Since
Thanksgiving, I have pondered on what the word thankful means. When I think
about being thankful, a specific passage of scripture that Paul wrote in
Philippians keeps coming to my mind. “I
know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere, in all things, I
have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer
need.” (Philippians 4:12) You may be wondering what this verse has to do with
being thankful, and I did to. So, I asked the Lord to show me what it means to
be thankful and to have a heart full of thanksgiving, and what exactly does
being content have to do with any of it.
The
word thankful means gracious, and agreeable. It means to be mindful of favors,
grateful and thankful to God. (Greek/Hebrew Lexicon, www.blueletterbible.org). The
Dictionary of Bible Themes defines thankfulness as “heartfelt gratitude to God,
expressed in response to His love and mercy.” Thankfulness is a condition of
the heart. Being thankful is not something we do; it is who we are to be.
Thankfulness is not in what we say, it is found in how we live and view this
life we have been given.
A
thankful heart is a satisfied heart. One of the synonyms of thankful is to be
satisfied. The opposite of thankful is ungrateful, critical and unappreciative.
Thankfulness doesn’t look and see the lack and the want of one’s life.
Thankfulness looks and sees hope, blessing and goodness in every aspect of its
day. We have so much to be thankful for. Every day is a gift from God. Every
day we are given is a testimony of His love and faithfulness to us. When I
complain about my life, or when all I see is the lack, I am only confessing what
is truly in my heart, a heart full of ungratefulness.
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Paul
was able to be content and satisfied in every aspect of his life, no matter if
he was abounding or if he was lacking, because he lived with a thankful heart.
He knew and understood that no matter what happened, no matter what came
against him, no matter what loss he might have to suffer, he was thankful because
in the end he had Jesus. Is that enough for us? Shouldn’t that be enough for us
too?
We ask the Lord for peace in our
lives, we ask the Lord to bless this and bless that, to provide this and
provide that, but we forget to thank Him when He does. Not only do we not thank
Him, we complain about it when He does give it to us, or we complain that we
don’t have what we asked for. Oh, how sorry my ungrateful heart is today! He
deserves my thanksgiving and praise, every single moment of every single day!
Thankfulness
is also a command given to us as His children. In Psalm 50:14 we are told to “Offer
to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.” He deserves all that
we can thank Him for. I sometimes complain about the lack of time that I have
to accomplish things. But what I am really saying is that I am ungrateful for
the time that He has given me. My ungrateful heart sees the lack, instead of
being thankful that I have something to do!
I am an avid house cleaner. I admit that I
might even be a little borderline OCD. If my house is unkempt or unclean, my
whole day is a disaster. I feel unclean and unkempt because my house is not in
order. (I am weird, I know!) What happens is that I end up complaining about no
one in my house ever helping to keep it clean, in my head I become upset and
get angry at my husband’s inability to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
I get all riled up inside and end up complaining about everything else in my
life from that point on.
What
the Lord is showing me is that what I become ungrateful I lose His peace for my
day. My frustrations and complaining are a result of my unthankful heart.
Instead of seeing the lack, He wants me to see the blessing. I am blessed
because I have a home to clean. I am blessed because I have a husband who works
and provides a home for me. I am blessed because I have a dishwasher. Our first
home did not have a dishwasher so all the dishes had to be done by hand, so I
truly should be thankful for the dishwasher!
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Paul
tells us in Colossians 3:15 that we must “let the peace of God rule in {our}
hearts, to which also {we} were called in one body; and be thankful.” The peace
of God comes into our hearts and is able to rule in us because we are thankful
for His love and faithfulness. I can be satisfied in every situation because I
am thankful for Him. No matter what happens, no matter what comes my way, there
is always something to be thankful for. His very life was given so that I might
be saved from sin and death, isn’t that something to be thankful for? He gave
me His word so that I might get to know Him and have a relationship with Him,
isn’t that something to be thankful for? I have been given new life, I am a new
creation because He went down into the grave and rose again so that I might be
with Him in eternity, isn’t that something to be thankful for?
In the
end, I really have nothing to complain about. My ungrateful heart sees lack,
but this new thankful heart He desires to give me will bring about that peace
that I so desperately need in my life. Every day we are given another day to
live a life filled with thanksgiving. I do not know what 2015 will bring, or
even if I will be here to see it, but one thing I know today is that I am
thankful that He has not given up on me yet. I am thankful for the home He has
provided, the job He has blessed me with, the love of family and friends, and
most of all, I am thankful for Jesus Christ who gave Himself so that I might
live forever with Him. Amen.
I pray
today that we would see the condition of our hearts and cry out to Him for new
ones. I pray that our complaining will be turned to thanksgiving, and the peace
of God which surpasses all understanding will rule in our hearts as we give
thanks each day for the blessing of His grace. In Jesus Name, forever and ever,
amen and amen. May your New Year bring about a new you in Him.
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