students of jesus

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." ~ G.K. Chesterton

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. ~ William Blake

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books - especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day. ~ John Wooden

It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful "in general." It's very strange. It's a little like being married in general. ~ Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing - a grateful heart! ~ George Herbert

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices. ~ Thomas Fuller

If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God. ~ Thomas a Kempis

The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

We have received too much from God to allow ourselves opportunities for unbelief. We have received too many gifts and privileges to allow a grumbling, murmuring heart to disqualify us of our destiny. In contrast, the thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints in progress. ~ Francis Frangipane

Gratitude . . . goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. ~ Henri J. M. Nouwen

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. ~ C. S. Lewis

There are two ways to be thankful, and one of them is deadly.

On the surface all thankfulness sounds good, but the path we take toward thankful words makes all the difference. The deadly path is gratitude based upon the lack of others. We look around and discover our place on the scale of good luck and think, “I’m glad I’m better off than them.” This is thanksgiving relative to someone else’s situation in life. It is Relative Thankfulness.

Relative thankfulness sees the world as a zero-sum game. It’s grateful the score is tilted in its favor. Perhaps you’ve heard the sound: “There are so many people struggling, but thank goodness I’m not among them.” Relative thankfulness has a thousand expressions: “we have bounteous table in a world where so many are hungry; I got the promotion over the other five candidates; I may have only one pair of shoes, but there are people in the world with no feet.”

Tune your ear to its nuance: the sound of relative thankfulness is everywhere, even in the houses of the holy: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” (Luke 18:10-11) After praying prayers of relative thankfulness we discover we’ve only been talking to ourselves. We also find ourselves ranking the other people at the temple.

But there is a path that leads to life, thanksgiving that enters the gates of God’s estate. Healthy thanksgiving is absolute. Without qualification. It has no need to look about. Absolute thanks focuses on the Giver and the gift. Absolute thanks understands that the gift says everything about the Giver—and next to nothing about the one who receives it, other than the receiver is the object of perfect love. Relative thankfulness looks around; absolute thanks looks up. Absolute thanks yearns for everyone to know such joy. Absolute thanks is the little boy who hits a home run, and wishes every other boy on the team will get the same chance to experience the thrill of taking the victory lap.

Here is the danger, the destination, of relative thankfulness: it is tempted confuse the goodness of God with the goodness of the recipient. Relative thankfulness has favorite verses in the Bible: “Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.” Or, “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” And as true as these verses are, relative thankfulness thinks the kindness and mercy of God somehow validates its own lifestyle. From there it’s only a short step to wondering out loud why in heaven’s name God would show kindness to others or why the rain would fall on the unjust as well as the just. It is dangerously close to envying the good fortune of others. It is incapable of rejoicing with others, or mourning with those who weep.

When the scripture reminds us of gratitude that leads to life, let’s turn our gaze where it belongs, and discover again the pure joy of absolute thanks.

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Enough with the rants and the whining: we have taught ourselves the habit of discontent. We are a people gone crazy with complaints. But the good news is habits can be dropped and new ones can be learned. We can update our software. We can see the world with fresh eyes.

Today A Month of Thanksgiving goes live at Amazon.com. It’s my attempt help reset our baseline and see gratitude as the “normal” God intended for each of his children. I wrote it because I believe our greatest need is to return to a “creaturely” relationship with our Creator. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. Did you know that last sentence is a verse of scripture? Visit our stern brother James and you’ll discover one of his foundations.

It’s a short daily devotional—you can read each one in a minute or two. After the devotion you’ll find a question worth asking, an action worth taking, and a quote worth repeating. Here’s a sample from day one. Get on board for the thanksgiving train: it’s underway in just a few days.

                                                                 November 1^st

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Paul’s words in Thessalonians have something to teach us about the will of God: he wants us to be thankful from the heart. Why torture ourselves over discovering God’s will when the obvious first step is right in front of us?

The Father knows thankfulness is the best thing for us—if it flows from the heart. When our hearts respond with prayers of joy and gratitude to the situations of life, we are responding out of Christlikeness and not simply parroting the company line.  One way to "pray continuously" is to develop the habit of giving thanks in all things. Gratitude is a mighty prayer in the Spirit.

Ask Yourself: Do I believe it is possible to give thanks in all situations? How could every circumstance contain the seeds of thanksgiving?

Live Into It: Each day, identify three thanks-worthy things. Use the notes App on your phone, or the white board on your refrigerator, or your bathroom mirror. It doesn’t matter if you repeat yourself some days—some things are worth giving thanks for every single day.

A.W. Tozer ~ “A thankful heart cannot be cynical.” 

                                                                            ~~~

This devotional is available at Amazon 99 cents as a Kindle book, or just a bit more in paperback. Gather your wits each morning. Become sane again. Select “Restart” and you will find the world God wants you to see.

The thankful heart is awake to God’s goodness. It lives in the constant wonder of his first judgment about the world: “it is good.”

Sometimes words change faster than Bible translations. Some words morph faster than politicians change positions. Worse still, some words are taken captive and forced into the labor of deception. They end up communicating the very opposite of their truest meaning.

For example, the simple word hope has come to mean something unsure and doubtful. Everyone hopes for the best, but prepares for the worst. When we talk about hope in everyday language we are really talking about our insecurities: who knows how things will really work out?

It’s not always been that way. The word hope used to do some pretty heavy lifting. The Biblical notion of hope is the opposite of un-certainty. It’s a word filled with expectation: expectation of God’s powerful intervention. The word hope describes the in-breaking of joy capable of showing fear to the door. When the Spirit of God speaks of hope the word means “confident expectation,” or quite literally a life-line from heaven. It is an overflowing word, intended to be contagious, changing lives and cultures. Hope is the engine of a thankful heart.

Hope is an abiding thing. It hangs out in the company of faith and love. It will outlast this world.

We could spend the next decade plumbing the depths of Biblical hope. We could explore the pathways of hope until we draw our final breath, only to discover that the half has not been told. Godly hope is the rebirth of divine certainty in us, and it does not disappoint.
Hebrews describes hope as an anchor, thrown--not into the sea--but into the heavens. The preacher of that message suggests hope should spur us to diligence, not out of desperation but rather confidence.
Hosea discovered the "gateway of hope" in the "valley of Trouble."
The Psalms reveal that hope is the antidote for depression and turmoil. Not wishful thinking or a positive mental attitude, but instead drinking deep from springs of hope the way a deer searches for streams of water.
In Romans, the Apostle Paul promised us that hope does not disappoint. Hope is the conduit through which God’s love pours into our hearts.

I’m beginning to re-tool my vocabulary, and more importantly my heart. What has God said? What has he promised? I will lash myself to his revelation, because hope abides. Our ability to give thanks from the heart depends upon hope: the hope of God’s goodness and the hope of his constant presence. The greatest of these may be love, but faith and hope are love’s fellow travelers. I suspect there’s room for you in the traveling party.

Abraham was as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents and sought a city whose builder and maker was God. Still, in an attempt to save the detestable cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he bargained with God for their good.

Daniel took the words of Jeremiah to heart and sought the prosperity of his exile city, a city responsible for the desolation of Jerusalem. Daniel gave the best of his counsel and wisdom in order that a pagan capital would thrive.

The Son of Man wept over the very city that would rise up and kill him. He drank the cup of wrath that was due to the privileged—and unfaithful—people of Israel.

From these examples I have learned to love my country, not because it is the truest, best, or perfect, but because this love is part of living as God’s agent of mercy among his people. Love of one's country, its cities, people, and customs is work of God. It is the middle way between two more common approaches to any society.

The first approach is judgment, and today is an easy day to judge America. Today is Black Friday, the Bacchanalia of consumerism that strangely follows Thanksgiving Day. The Twitterverse and blogosphere brims over with distain for this American excess, and Christians lead the way in critical remarks. Believers chastise others for so quickly abandoning the grace and gratitude of giving thanks in favor of buying and getting more, more, more. Yet even the critics have quickly abandoned another kind of gratitude, that of loving your neighbor. How can we show mercy when today we heap judgment?

The second approach is less prevalent in America today but it still exists: “My country, right or wrong.” Just a generation ago large segments of Evangelical Christianity enjoyed confusing the American Ideal with the Kingdom Stone. We loved America blindly and described her as “the last, best hope for the world.” This, too, is excess, practiced in the post-war decades in a way that substituted our calling to be strangers in a strange land for the hope that America would establish God’s kingdom on earth. It was foolish, too.

For Americans, Black Friday is as good a day to love America as any other day, because this is where we are planted. I am thankful my country, freedoms and flaws together, like Nineveh, the Father has mercy on the lost.