Monday, November 25, 2019
680 - Thanks Any Way
Spirituality Column #680
November 26, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Thanks Any Way
By Bob Walters
“…give thanks in all
circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Apostle Paul, 1
Thessalonians 5:18
“Every blessing I
don’t turn back to praise turns into pride.” – Rick Grover, E91 Pastor
Some years ago in this column I made the point that I’d
broken myself of the habit of saying I was “proud” of this or that because too
often, pride is a sin.
Life has presented to me its share of successes and
failures, but Christian and biblical study later in life has made it plain that
rather than be proud of this or ashamed of that, pride and despair aren’t where
I want to spend my time. Satan smiles
when we dwell there, but I think “be thankful and pray a lot” is the far better
way of Christ.
It is a common human station – when we come to a full
encounter with the truth of our salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus – to
want to look at the sin and problems and fear in our lives through the lens of
guilt and shame. True and present as all
those items may be, and surely they are why Jesus died on the cross, our lives
won’t really change if we remain mired in the neurosis of our misbehaviors.
Jesus came to break that chain: to give us hope in the
Kingdom still to come and confidence in the eternal truth of God. We mustn’t miss the blessing of not only our
restored, original relationship with the Father through Jesus the Son, but the
truth we know through Jesus of God’s love, goodness, and righteousness. Pride blots that truth.
So I’m thankful … thankful for my wife and her many talents,
for my sons and their many successes, for my church and its steady fellowship,
for purposeful work to do, and for so many more blessings and challenges. Praise God for an interesting life.
Pastor Rick’s quote above came in Sunday’s message he
delivered about gratitude as a heightened virtue when blessing becomes
praise. He used the familiar story of
the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, where ten were healed by Jesus but only one, a
thankful Samaritan, returned “praising
God in a loud voice.” Leprosy, Rick
explained, kills the feeling in our bodies leaving us susceptible to the worst
kinds of rot and infection because we cannot feel pain.
Two things occurred to me. 1) The other nine were more
interested in showing the priests they had been cleansed than in praising God,
and 2) Jesus the great healer knew their (and our) pain, which the Jewish law –
and Jewish leaders – did not.
We don’t know how many of the ten were and were not Jews,
but the great lesson is that it was a pagan Samaritan – not a Jew – who most
appreciated the gift and glorified God with his thanks and praise. While Jewish Law was occupied with “clean and
unclean” and the other nine focused on the priests, Jesus focused on the cleansing,
and the Samaritan – who didn’t need the priests or the Law – focused on
praising God.
Our thanksgiving to Jesus shines because our spiritual “feeling”
is restored and the spiritual rot in our lives is replaced by the great,
gracious spiritual cleansing and renewal we are afforded in Jesus Christ. In Him, by Him, and through Him we are
assured of God’s loving truth, the reality of His Kingdom, and our eternal home
in it.
I’m always thankful for a good meal, but a full stomach is
no match for a full heart. My prayer is
that no matter what Satan tempts, what this life presents, or what my own pride
attempts, I’ll hold tight to Jesus and say “thanks,” any way and every way.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: happiness is when you get stuff;
joy is when you give stuff. Happy Thanksgiving! … and pass the stuffing.
BTW … here is a link
to that “pride” column from 11-26-13, #367
- Pride, Peace and Thanksgiving. Six years ago to the date. Hmmm. Coincidence.
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