A Life in Exile

American holidays bring mixed emotions to anyone far away from home, and Thanksgiving can be a big one. I’m reflecting on the importance of being thankful and the impact it can have on those around us, especially as we live in an increasingly dark and uncertain world. How can not just our celebration of an American holiday be a witness but also our day-in-day-out attitude of thankfulness serve His purposes?

Give thanks with a grateful heart.

I cannot help but hum the tune of “Give Thanks” by Henry Smith when I think of our call to be a thankful people. God’s Word is full of exhortations to be thankful.

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 CSB)

And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15)

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 107:1)

I will thank the Lord for his righteousness; I will sing about the name of the Lord Most High. (Psalm 7:17)

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. (1 Timothy 4:4-5)

Jesus gave thanks to God the Father before multiplying the loaves, raising the dead, and healing the sick. He gave thanks to God over the final meal he would share with his disciples, knowing that it represented the physical breaking of his body and spilling of his blood in the hours to come.

Our thanks is not like that of the world.

As with the example of Christ Jesus, our ability to offer thanks to God through trials is incomprehensible to the world around us. Many of the letters the Apostle Paul wrote that included words of thanks were written from prison and places of hardship. We know that God uses times of trial and suffering, illness and persecution to conform us more into the image of his Son. He enables us to see his greatness in our weakest of times. All that leads to thankfulness—on the front end and the back—as we learn to be thankful in anticipation of what God is doing or teaching us through hardship and what he will do on the other side by bringing healing, wholeness, restoration, and reconciliation.

This is not the way the world thinks about hardship. No, it’s to be fought against, denied, rejected. What good can come through suffering? How can a person be happy about aging, illness, death, or struggles?

This is where our thankfulness builds a bridge to testimony of God’s love and desire for everyone to know the good news of the salvation we have in Jesus.

Our thanks is to a person, the source of all good.

It’s easy to say thanks to a person we know when they’ve done a kind deed, and it’s important to do that. Who do we thank for our health, family, blessings, and all those intangibles of life? I certainly can’t thank myself or another human being. No one person is responsible for all the good in my life. When we sit around the table on Thanksgiving Day and everyone shares that one thing they’re thankful for, to whom does our thanks flow?

For Christians, it must always flow to God Almighty, the Lord of all Creation and source of all good and blessing in this world. He’s also the One we can thank during the hard times as well. Why? Because he alone is by our side, helping us through such times of life. We are thankful because we have a hope that keeps us pressing forward, even when everything looks hopeless.

When we are mindful to always direct our thanks to God, those around us take note. Our thankfulness to the Lord in everything cannot be ignored. It makes an impact. We may not see it in the moment, but that does not mean that God will not use it to be a seed that he’ll use to break the hard soil of their heart.

Be purposeful in your thanksgiving.

Whether it’s in the actual way you celebrate the annual holiday or how you sprinkle your conversations with thanksgiving, ask the Lord to help you exhibit a thankful attitude in all you do and say. Direct your thanks to God, even as you thank the other person for something they did or for just being your friend.

Just as Paul wrote his friends, “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you” (Philippians 1:3), you can voice the same words of thanks to God for those he brings your way. In writing to the believers in Colossians (4:6), Paul talked about how their language should always be gracious and seasoned with salt. I pray that we will consider words of thanksgiving and gratitude to God in our salt-shaker collection. Let thanks to God add flavor that draws others to the seasoning that Christ adds to those who call him Lord and Savior.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Mission Monday post, click HERE, or check out these posts about giving thanks: How Can I Say Thanks?, Stop and Smell the Roses, Grateful Memories, and Thankful for the Hard Places.