Thanksgiving is upon us. This is the time of year that we pause and give thanks to God who provides for us. I like Pastor Dewey’s post, “The Way the Church is Meant to Be.” In it he describes how Pastor Leonard Navarre of Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood taught him about “Thanks-living.”
Giving thanks should be the way we live.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT
In all circumstances. Not all circumstances we find ourselves in during this lifetime are happy. However, even in those unhappy circumstances we can find something to be thankful for.
This past week, my phone has been ringing with bad news unfolding in the lives of people I love and of people I am acquainted with in some way. News such as:
- a husband needing hospice care because there is nothing else doctors can do
- loved ones dying in tragic accidents
- a nephew arrested and denied bond
- a suicide
- an unsuccessful surgery
- a family member with an alzheimer’s diagnosis
This is heavy stuff — right before Thanksgiving.
But by God’s wild grace, He led me to read Acts 16. There I found Paul and Silas ministering the gospel in Macedonia. After delivering a slave woman from a demonic spirit, her master was enraged about losing his income. Then Paul and Silas were dragged off to jail.
Not only were they dragged off, a mob formed against them and the city officials ordered them to be stripped naked and beaten with wooden rods. Then thrown into prison. Because the guard received instruction to make sure Paul and Silas did not escape, the guard placed them in an inner dungeon and clamped their feet. This is one of the worst places anyone could find themselves. Naked, beaten, and chained inside an inner dungeon with dank, stale air.
What would you do if you found yourself in a situation like that? We often find ourselves in dark places in our lives. If we’re not cautious, despair can suck us into deeper darkness, even deeper than the most inner dungeon.
Paul and Silas did not allow despair to set in over them. They reached into their inner most knowledge of the Most High God and began to pray and sing hymns at the midnight hour. And they sang in such a way that all the other prisoners listened.
Then, SUDDENLY. I love finding “suddenly” words in the Bible. At times, we desperately need the suddenly turn arounds in our lives. Yet for Paul and Silas there was suddenly an earthquake that shook the foundation, opened all the prison doors, and knocked off the chains of all the prisoners.
The Lord set them free when they prayed and sang songs to God.
My friends, God wants to shake the foundations of our circumstances and set us free from the chains that hinder us. Our circumstances may be grim, or not exactly as we envisioned it. But just like Paul and Silas in the midnight hour, we can pray and sing songs of Thanksgiving to the Lord Who can do all things. Who knows—your suddenly may come after that next song.
This Thanksgiving, let’s commit to living a life of “Thanks-living” by singing songs to God. Songs of Thanksgiving.
God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!
© 2014 Shonda Savage
