Gratitude

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks…their minds became dark and confused…instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, birds and animals and snakes…so God let them go ahead…as a result they did vile things…they deliberately chose to believe lies…God abandoned them to their shameful desires…When they refused to acknowledge God…their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip…forever inventing new ways of sinning…they are fully aware of God’s penalty for such behaviour but they go right ahead and do them anyway…encouraging others to do the same… Romans 1:21 – 2:16 

Give thanks…or else!

The above passage is not a ‘touchy-feely’ type of message. In fact it’s rather harsh. Sobering. It’s what happens when we cease giving thanks. What about when life gets miserable? When we see injustice? When we find ourselves up against a wall? When we are overwhelmed with grief? Surely there must be some exceptions to this! Give thanks?

A few years ago (seems like yesterday) my husband was preparing a sermon on worshipping God in the valley, when life sucks and is just not any fun. We were also on the schedule to lead the singing that morning so we selected songs that spoke to that. He gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. When life is good give him thanks. When life is rough, give him thanks. We had already experienced several traumatic losses that year but really wanted people to know that God is good, ALL THE TIME. The Saturday evening, before said sermon was to be preached, and worship songs to be sung, I received a phone call that took me out at the knees. It was my mom. “I have some very sad news. Lenore was killed in a car accident this morning.”

The rest of the conversation missed me. My kids said all they heard was a wail of, “Oh no!!” Lenore is my cousin. We have been close since we were born over 50 years ago. When she married David, he and Tom hit it off. Our kids are good friends with their kids. We did camping holidays together. She has just always been there, listening, loving, caring, praying, laughing, and crying. It must be a mistake. Later that evening her husband called and confirmed that indeed she was gone. And. Never. Coming. Back. 

ARE YOU SERIOUS, GOD?!! Do you really expect us to get up in front of the people tomorrow and worship you? To give thanks to you? This pain is too much, Lord.

However, for us to have cancelled our part in the service saying, “Our grief is too much, we just can’t do it this morning”, would have been saying that God is not enough for this. (Please bear in mind that it is definitely appropriate to take time off for grief and trauma. This was our story for this specific event). 

“No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT

God had lead my husband to the right topic at the right time. He had lead us to select those very specific songs. He knew what was coming for us. I could hear him ask, “How serious are you about testifying to everyone else that God is worthy of your worship when life sucks?”

We really had no choice. Refusing to worship God and give him thanks is an act of anarchy. A lack of trust. Were the songs true? Yes. Was the sermon true? Of course!! So through a veil of tears we sang. My husband preached. Truer words were never spoken. Talk about a ‘sacrifice of praise’. Talk about a real-life illustration. God is good. He is worthy of our gratitude, our praise, our worship.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7(emphasis mine).

Tell God what you need. I know as an all-knowing God he already knows. But he loves to hear our voice. He loves it when we finally get honest and let him know how we feel and what we need. It’s a great way of letting him know that we recognize he is in charge and worthy of our worship and praise; that he is our only hope.

That day I wanted to curl up in a little ball until the pain went away. That day all I wanted was for my heart, which was in many tiny little pieces, to be repaired and made whole again. That day I chose to worship a God who deserves my praise no matter what life throws at me. My people needed to see what it looks like when life is hard and we give thanks to God anyway. And God is healing my heart a little at a time.

I’m sort of a pro-choice kind of person. I used to tell my kids, “You can do this with a spanking or without a spanking, you choose.” You don’t have to give thanks. But the end result of withholding gratitude from our Maker, our good Father, is a deep dark slippery slope into a place without God. Do you really want to risk that? Or, do you want to experience God’s peace which is way beyond anything you can imagine? You choose.