The simple act of giving thanks has a transformational effect on the human psyche.
Even though nothing about our circumstances or our situations necessarily has changed, giving thanks changes how we feel. Hope replaces despair. Peace transplants worry, and soon life isn’t as bad as it was just a few minutes ago.
What changed? Nothing but our focus.
We took our focus off the difficulties and placed them on what is good in our lives — those things the Bible refers to as blessings.
Our society is familiar with the power of thanksgiving. One of the most well-known of all Christmas movies, “White Christmas,” demonstrates the transformational power of thanksgiving.
When Betty Haynes, played by Rosemary Clooney, can’t sleep at the General Waverly’s Inn in Vermont, she gets up for a drink of warm milk and runs into Bob Wallace, played by Bing Crosby, who upon hearing of the worry and anxiety troubling her, sings her the now famous tune, “Count Your Blessings.” The chorus states, “When you’re worried and you can’t sleep just count your blessings instead of sheep and you’ll fall to sleep counting your blessings.”
Those who are familiar with the Bible know of the power of thanksgiving. The Bible instructs its readers more than 30 times in the New Living Translation (NLT) to “give thanks,” with the object of that thanksgiving being God either explicitly using phrases such as “give thanks to the Lord” or “give thanks to God,” or implicitly, where God is the inferred recipient of our Thanksgiving.
James 1:17 tells us that God is the rightful recipient of all of our thanksgiving because, “Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father.”
The Apostle Paul writes of the link thanksgiving has to prayer and joy in 1Thessalonians 5:16 – 18, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” Paul understood the link between thanksgiving and the joy that results. If we are thankful in all circumstances and respond by continually thanking God in prayer, the result is a continual joy.
Naysayers might object by saying such a practice is unrealistic.
But the Bible often uses a literary technique of hyperbole, which is a gross exaggeration to make a point, and here the point is the link between prayer, thanksgiving and joy. The more we put the act of thanksgiving into practice in our lives, the more joy will result.
Paul’s instruction isn’t, as the Negative Nellies and Grumpy Guses mistakenly think, advocating a Pollyanna approach to living, where we are instructed to give thanks “for” all circumstances. No, Paul understood better than most — having been beaten with rods, stoned and left for dead — that life is full of circumstances that one would not want to give thanks “for.”
The same is true in our modern world. There are plenty of challenges and difficulties we have to endure. Some of them are a direct result of our own choices to live contrary to God’s instruction. Others are the result of those around us making such choices that affect us negatively. Paul’s instruction is to give thanks “in” all circumstances.
When life’s difficulties get us down, we need to focus on the good in our life and give thanks to God for it. By doing so, it forces us to take our focus off the things that upset or aggravate us or the circumstances and situations that are stealing our joyfulness, and instead places our focus on the things in life that cause us to smile, make us happy and result in joy.
Another benefit of giving thanks is peace. Writing to the church in Philippi, Paul tells them that giving thanks results in peace.
Philippians 4:6 – 7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
As we journey down the roads in life, there is plenty that can cause us to worry or become anxious. Paul teaches us that giving thanks to God for what He has done, through prayer, is part of a spiritual one-two punch that will set anxiousness and worry fleeing.
Did you read that last sentence carefully? I said that WILL set anxiousness and worry fleeing, not CAN. Paul isn’t giving us a formula for peace that CAN work but one that WILL work.
Do you want a “can’t miss” method for having a peace that is beyond understanding and transcends the mire and muck of the circumstances and situations you are in? Pray, talk with God about your situation and then give Him thanks for the good things He has provided.
In times such as these, when life’s difficulties are more frequent and last longer — a time economists are now politely referring to as “The Great Recession” — the power of Thanksgiving needs to be rediscovered. Doing so will be life transforming.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, but don’t wait until then. Start today. Take a few moments to thank God in prayer for the good things He has given and experience the power of transformation, and the joy and peace that accompany it.
The author is the pastor of Walnut Hill Community Church, 27 9th St., Derby.
