And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17.
A similar passage is found in I Thessalonians 5:18: In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. This second Scripture is more difficult to explain than the first, for it says, “In everything give thanks.” While meditating upon the Word, the Holy Spirit began to speak to my heart that we should give thanks; we should be truly thankful in our hearts for everything.
The reason we do not give thanks for everything is that we do not have a revelation of God in every aspect of our lives. But the Lord Jesus whom we serve is in every aspect of our lives, every day, in everything that we encounter.
We should be grateful even when we feel that we are under His discipline, because it has such a high and lofty ultimate purpose in the heart of God: “that we might be partakers of His holiness,” His very nature (Hebrews 12:9–11).
We cannot be really thankful unless we have a revelation of this; otherwise, we feel that someone is doing something to us that should not be done. Then we find that our life becomes a resistance not only against adversity as we define it, but a resistance against God who is trying to meet us in that adversity. We become bitter over the devastation that comes to us, instead of bowing down and worshiping the Lord because we have an awareness of Him in it.
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. Job 1:20–22.
As we are truly thankful, we realize that whether it is something that we receive or something that is happening to us, even our successes are an occasion for us to give thanks to God (Hebrews 13:15). Our successes we like to take credit for; we tend to feel, “I am successful; I did it.”
But James writes in his Epistle, Every good gift and every perfect gift (everything) is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17, KJV.
From our immutable, unchangeable God, wonderful things come to us. We thank Him for this. We rejoice because we know that even the good things in our lives are not a product of our effort alone. And even if they were, it is God who gives us the ability to attain them. You may have painted a beautiful painting, or carved a beautiful statue, or preached a fine sermon, which you feel is an attainment of yours: “I have done this!” Even if you did, God gave you the ability. He gave you the knowledge to do it.
To be thankful means that you come into a realization of how much God’s presence is with you and how much His input is in your own life.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. I Corinthians 15:10.
You realize that everything you have become, everything you have experienced, everything in your life that is pleasing to God, is there because He has had His input in it.
Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Isaiah 26:12, KJV.
You may feel, “But I have not had any success. I have had failure; I have had assault; I have had warfare.” Is that all you see? Haven’t you seen that all things work together for good to those who love God? (Romans 8:28.) “But I failed.”
All right, you failed. Let’s put it this way: The best gift that God can give a man is to prevent him from succeeding in the human attainments that would destroy him—to bring failure to his interpretation of what success, life, and dreams are all about—until that man changes.
Then he knows, “I can’t have that, because God won’t let me have it. I tried with all my initiative, and I did not attain it. Therefore, I can only bow to the Lord.” For example, a father may break the little string of imitation pearls his little girl wears, in order to replace them with a beautiful string of pearls that are genuine. Likewise, God takes away an illusion that you are something, in order to make you truly into something in His will (I Corinthians 8:2–3).
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.
If we could only see that all things are working together for good to those who are called according to God’s purpose, and to those who love Him! He has His will for you; and if you love Him, He is going to see that through faith, through appropriation, or through one simple word, His grace, it will come to pass. But when it comes to pass, you won’t be up and down with a feeling of self-satisfaction, because somewhere along the way God has done something in you. When the great general has won a war, when the great architect has built a mighty structure, if it has been of God, there is a humility that He has worked in that person. Too many times that person found he was inadequate, but the unseen presence of the Lord became real to him.
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. II Corinthians 12:9.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13.
Paul tells us how we are to walk: Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Ephesians 5:20.
In other words, “Let everyone give thanks unto the Lord for all things.” Why do we quote that Scripture so often?
Because the man who is truly thankful is the man who is really aware of the presence of God in every aspect of his life. He becomes a worshiper, because he is in tune with the Lord Himself.
A man is thankful when he realizes that he did not earn all the things in his life that God has brought to him (I Corinthians 15:10). He did not deserve any revelation of a divine destiny or of the ultimate purpose of God in his life (II Timothy 1:9). All of this came because our God is a gracious and loving God.
Even the adversities that hit Job caused him to worship the Lord; they caused him to want to serve God even more (Job 1:20–22). Job was a man who was perfect in all his ways (Job 1:1); his sacrifices were filled with praise. But God had a strange way of bringing a double portion to Job in his latter days. In devastating him, God was trying to find a way to make him even more perfect in his ways before God, in order that He could give him greater blessings (Job 42:10–16).
We must view with thanks the good blessings and gifts that God gives us, and we must also view adversities as good gifts and blessings of the Lord.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. I Peter 4:12–14.
And after you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace, who called You to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. I Peter 5:10.
The churches have gone through great testings. These testings caused some to wonder what was happening. This was difficult for them to face, but the greatest favor that could be done for them was to make them find for themselves the presence of God in their situation.
They had to come to the place where they could say, “Nobody explained this to me. I listened to the tapes and read This Weeks, and they all blessed me. But I was going through something that I could not understand until, as I began to seek the Lord for myself, I found that I have a real walk with God. I found out what is really important. The Lord helped me to put the emphasis on the things that are real, that are eternal, that are what He wants. I have shifted my focus from the trivial, and I refuse to be bitter or critical; for I have found the great movings of God in my life through these things that have happened to me.” Can you say this? It is true of many of us now.
For all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:15, 17–18.
As I listened and observed, I have been encouraged to see so many people finding a walk with God for themselves. It is not a walk that is prescribed, nor one that involves certain mechanics. Nor is it one that they have had to just accept because it was so reasonable, so logical, and so scriptural. Instead, it is a walk in which each person finally comes to the place where he believes that God is and that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6.
They believe that the promises of God are so great and precious that by them they can become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust (II Peter 1:4). They find themselves delivered from corruption, and they become truly grateful and thankful.
A thankful heart is an aware heart, aware of the presence of God. This is the basis of real worship (Revelation 4:8–11).
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. II Peter 1:2–4.
You can be thankful for everything in your life when you know that the Lord is in it all.
The Lord will be revealed to you in every aspect of your life when you believe He is in every aspect of your life.
The best gift that God can give a man is to prevent him from succeeding in the human attainments that would destroy him.