Talking with God:  Thanksgiving                                        January 22, 2012

1 Thessalonians 5: 12-18 (TNIV)

¹² Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.  ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

For the last several weeks we’ve been talking about prayer.  We talked about the Lord’s Prayer as a model of prayer and then last week, we talked about the importance of making time in our busy lives to develop our relationship with God through prayer.  Today, we want to talk about the idea of prayer as “talking with God”.  Not talking at God, but talking with God.  I almost prefer the idea of having a “conversation with God” because to me the idea of a conversation is that there is give and take.  One person talks and then the other responds, then the other talks and the first person responds.  Because you know sometimes when we are talking it is a one sided deal…

But think about having a conversation with one of your best friends.  That’s what we are talking about when we talk about prayer.  We’ve been using the acronym ACTS.  A for Adoration.  C for Confession.  T for Thanksgiving.  And S for Supplication.

So, today we want to talk about the “T” or Thanksgiving in our prayer.  Now you know that Adoration and Thanksgiving are pretty closely tied together.  Adoration is usually praising God for who God inherently is while thanksgiving is often thanking God for what he has done for us, for the circumstances we are in, etc.  But they really are pretty closely tied together.

As Ellsworth Kalas describes it, prayer is about a friendship.  We want to communicate with our best friend.  Sometimes we communicate with words, sometimes we communicate by just being in the same room with no words.

But somewhere in the midst of our conversation with our divine friend, God, we need to give thanks.

Again Ellsworth Kalas puts it this way “Not only does God deserve my gratitude, I need desperately to speak it, because something in human nature needs to say thank you.  When we fail to say it, we are less than what God made us to be.  And when we fail to speak it to God, we lose some of the exquisite joy of our eternal friendship.”  p. 80. Longing to Pray.

Have you ever felt that in a friendship, where you just really needed to say thank you, not because it was expected of you, but because you really wanted to show your appreciation?  That’s what we are talking about here.

In the Psalms there are all sorts of ways that this kind of thanks is shown.

Psalm 92

¹ It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
² proclaiming your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
³ to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.

⁴ For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
⁵ How great are your works, LORD,
how profound your thoughts!

This psalm talks about praising God with music.  We do that in all of our worship services.  It is one of the ways we thank God.

But the psalmist also talks about giving thanks to God for who he is.  In Psalm 118 it says:

Psalm 118

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

¹³ I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.
¹⁴ The LORD is my strength and my defense^[a];
he has become my salvation.

²⁵ LORD, save us!
LORD, grant us success!

²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.^[b]
27 The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up^[c] to the horns of the altar.

²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.

²⁹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

The psalmist gives thanks to God because he is good, because of his love, because he has saved the psalmist, because his light shines on him, because he is their God…that’s why the psalmist gives thanks because of who God is.

So that is one set of reasons to give thanks to God, because of who God is.

Paul in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica is apparently writing to combat some issues among the Christian community there.

Some have gotten caught up in the idea that the second coming of Christ is imminent and therefore they have stopped being productive members of society, they are just sitting and waiting.  Paul writes to them and says, “No, you don’t know the hour or the day, so you have to make sure you are ready at any time.  Keep working, keep caring for each other, keep doing all that you have been taught so that you are caught doing the right things when Jesus shows up.  Help each other out.  Lift each other up.  God wants you to rejoice and pray and give thanks…to do all that Jesus taught us to do!”  In Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica he says to give thanks in all circumstances.

Now you have to know something about Paul to know just what that means.  As Paul was on his missionary journeys to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people all throughout the region he was shipwrecked several times, imprisoned several times, and talked about some sort of medical condition that would not go away which Paul described as a “thorn in his side”, yet still Paul gave thanks to God.  So, when Paul says to give thanks to God in all circumstances, he really means it.  In the midst of disaster, in the midst of personal loss, in the midst of illness…give thanks!

How can that be?

Perhaps it has something to do with attitude so that regardless of the circumstances, we can give thanks that God is with us and that he has good things in store for us.

Charles Swindoll has said:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

I think that regardless of the circumstances that Paul had a really good attitude.  But, why?  I think it is because Paul knew that regardless of the circumstances that surrounded him that he knew that he had a future in Christ.  We, too, can give thanks because Christ died to take away our sins and has promised that all who believe in Him (his death…his resurrection…) will not perish but have eternal life.  In the midst of whatever comes our way, we can be thankful because we know what the future holds.

That reminds me of the interview that I saw on the news after the tornado in Joplin, Missouri last May.  The news was interviewing an ER doctor at the hospital that was all but destroyed by the tornado.  The windows were blown out, the helicopter tossed on its side like it was a toy, and the hospital was uninhabitable.  He described the competition that existed between this regional trauma hospital and the other hospital in town and then with tears in his eyes and a catch in his voice, he said, “but everyone has come together to help.  We are working together with the other hospital to take care of all of our patients and all of the people in the community who need help.”

In that statement, I heard the doctor say, “I am thankful that our competitor was here to help in the midst of tragedy.”

Does that sound like Paul’s “giving thanks in all circumstances”?

Now don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t say that this was easy.  Remember it is a matter of attitude…of approach.  We have a choice to whether we want to look for things to be thankful for or if we just want to look for things to complain about.

When I was a kid and I’d start complaining about things, my mom would say to me, “every night when you go to bed, I want you to think about two things that you are thankful about for the day before you go to sleep.”  You know, I hate to say it, but she was right.  There was always something to give thanks for.

Maybe all I could think of was that I was thankful that I remembered the combination to my locker or that I had food to eat (even if it wasn’t what I wanted), but there were always two things and more that I could give thanks for.  And there still is.  Some of you say to me that you give thanks that you are still on the green side of the grass.  Or maybe you can give thanks that you found a parking place when you went to the store.  Or maybe you are thankful that the sun came out this week or that we might be getting a Trader Joe’s or ?????

I think taking time to think about what we’re thankful for helps to get us out of ourselves for just a moment, to stop dwelling on our problems and to focus on all the good that is going on around us which we get to be a part of.

I really think that was what Paul was getting at!

So, when you pray…when you have that conversation with God, your divine friend, don’t forget to make giving thanks a part of it.

I like the way that singer, piano player, and song writer Mark Schultz put it in his song about prayer written from the perspective of God.  Think about God saying this to you:

Oh child, precious one
Let your life shine like the sun
But you say “How long ‘til I can come home
‘Til I can rest in your arms again”
And I say “Not long but don’t miss this life and I’ll be
Waiting ‘til then”

(Chorus)
Live with the wonder of a child
Pray with your arms thrown open wide
Love with a love that has no end
Until I see you again

Oh child, precious one
With each breath know you are loved
But you say “How long ‘til I can come home
‘Til I can rest in your arms again”
And I say “Not long but don’t miss this life and I’ll be
Waiting ‘til then”

Live with the wonder of a child
Pray with your arms thrown open wide
Love with a love that has no end
Until I see you again

Just like the Christians in Thessalonica, we can’t just sit around waiting for the time that we will be scooped up into heaven.  We have to live our lives.  We have to engage.  We have to be in relationship with God.  We have to talk with God.  Then regardless of when the end comes, we will be ready.

I love this song, because it conveys this idea that Paul was talking about.  To live and pray with the wonder of a child.  Children – ever watch them?  They can be in awe of what we consider the most mundane things.  What if we lived with that kind of wonder and awe?  Could we give thanks to God?  If we approached God with the wonder of a child, throwing our arms open wide.  Think of a child in the rain trying to catch the drops in their hands and mouth.  What if we tried to catch God’s Spirit raining down on us like that?

Look around, stuff is happening all around us that we can be in awe of…that we can give thanks for.  On Wed. afternoon and evening we had more than 30 kids here for CLC and youth group.  Last Sunday, we baptized one of our adults.  I give thanks for that!

Don’t worry about having the right words or the right place or the right time.  Just start talking with God.  Start the conversation.  It’s something we all need in our lives.  As Ellsworth Kalas, (p. 7, Longing to Pray) put it:

“I thought it was a discontinuity in logic when I heard several years ago that in a certain European country more people prayed than believed in God.  But when I thought a bit longer, I wasn’t surprised.  Prayer is so instinctive to our human nature that no laws of logic are involved.  The doubter or the unbeliever feels that if there isn’t a God, there ought to be Someone somewhere who cares about us enough to listen to our needs, and who might even be pleased to communicate with us.  We may not pray often, and we may not pray well, but all of us want, somehow, some way, to pray.  And most of us wish we could pray well.  The disciples of Jesus said, ‘Teach us to pray’; we echo, ‘Me, too.’”

Today is a great day to pick up the conversation with God wherever you have left off.  You might just start by telling God about one or two things that you are thankful for and then see where the conversation goes from there.

Let’s pray together…