One of Life’s Hardest Lessons
This Thanksgiving week, I give thanks for a whole first year of enjoyment sharing these Tuesday blogs, I hope they are a help to you! One of life’s hardest lessons is the attitude of contentment, the way of life that goes with thanksgiving.
Life’s Hardest Lessons
We are going into the week that is to remind us that everything in this life is a gift from God. We remember that God is good, does good and works all things together for good. Thanksgiving is so much more than just saying so. We often think of a parent telling a small child “Tell Grandma thank you”. But it is more than that, it is a life, a lifestyle that acknowledges God in everything. One of life’s hardest lessons is the attitude of contentment, the way of life that goes with thanksgiving.
In Everything Give Thanks
A short, powerful verse at the end of one of Paul’s letters says “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We know we are to give thanks, but the operative words in this verse are “everything” and “God’s will”. As we know, everything that happens is not something about which we would want to give thanks. But it says everything. So knowing God is at work in our lives is the operative thought. Knowing He is involved in the good things and the hard things. Also, this is not an optional thing for a follower of Jesus Christ, it is God’s will. It is what He wants for us.
Thank You Lord
So we see that this goes way beyond “be sure and say thank-you” and the observances of this week. It is a life to be cultivated all year long, that sees God’s hand in everything. Give thanks for what we would say is good, and even the things that are hard to get through. It means knowing He walks through all things with us. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me” (Psalm 23:4). The response to that is “thank you Lord”.
Contentment
The life of thanksgiving is the virtue we call contentment. Paul, who wrote “in everything give thanks” apparently practiced it. We see this in a letter he wrote from prison: “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).
Doing All Things Through Christ
It is not that he was so great, he was human just like all of us. He had ups and downs. He’d had times where he had a lot and times when he didn’t have much. Contentment was something he had learned. How did he learn it? Remembering he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him. For him, like for all of us, we will not naturally just be content and thankful in all things, it is something that is learned, and we learn it from Jesus. More than that He gives us the strength inside and out to put it into practice.
One of life’s hardest lessons is the attitude of contentment, the way of life that goes with thanksgiving.
May God Give Us Thankful Hearts
That is why this time of year is so important. Not just to give thanks for all the things that God has given and done for us, but also for the greatest thing of all, which is our next holiday. God become man at Bethlehem, “come to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). May God give us thankful hearts and help us to learn contentment.
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