Being Thankful in Difficult Times?
For this months blog I ended up posing the question, “Being thankful in difficult times?“ Originally I was planning to title this blog as, “A Time of Thanksgiving“ but that is not how this months blog landed. I will however talk about thanksgiving, but I realized it is hard to ignore the realities and difficult times of life we all face regardless of identities and cultural backgrounds. So what are my thoughts on Thanksgiving?
I believe this time is more than simply a North American holiday, but a time of thankfulness in recognizing both the big and little things in our lives to express gratitude for. It is quite easy to get caught up in a lot of the current world events or even the events in our own countries that can frustrate, sadden, cause anger and lead us at times to perhaps ask, “God where are you?“ I think this question is relevant whether a person has been a practicing Christian for decades or of a different faith background. To put it gently, I believe generation to generation experiences these feelings and thoughts as we look back at events that have taken place in history, Christian or not. World Wars, plagues, famines and natural disasters to name just a few. With how the world is today how can we be thankful?
In the Christian context, in my own words, I would define the practice of thanksgiving or expressing gratitude to God as a faithful discipline. Of course we are not immune from the storms and realities of life, but as Christian’s this does not mean we are incapable of praising our Father in heaven in the midst of these storms. There are many things to be thankful for even in the midst of the storms and chaos of life. As a Christian, just because my life is difficult at times, it does not excuse me to not take a heart posture of thankfulness and pray prayers of thanksgiving to the One who gave it all. If my faith practice is only built upon worship and thanking God when times in my life are good and then turning my back on God when times in my life are bad, can I realistically say that I am truly a follower of Jesus? Simply said, is my relationship with God faith based or conditional based?
I am reminded of several Psalms and some of Paul’s advice to the early church in giving thanks to the Lord. In both the Old Testament and New Testament, we read of the importance as Christian’s to practice thanksgiving. The Scriptures remind us to give thanks to God as He is worthy of all our praise. In the midst of difficult times, I work to cultivate a faith discipline within myself to stop and give thanks to God even when the storms of life are at their strongest. It does not mean it is always easy, but when I think of all the wonderful things God has done in my life and in the life of others, my response is to worship Him and pray prayers of thanksgiving.
Here are some of Bible passages I wish to share…
1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Psalm 103:1-5 NLT
1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
Psalm 116:15-19 NLT
15 The Lord cares deeply
when his loved ones die.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household;
you have freed me from my chains.
17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people—
19 in the house of the Lord
in the heart of Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Philippians 4:4-9 NIV
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.
And the God of peace will be with you.
A Storm of Life
Perhaps I talk too much about one of my storms in life that occurred in 2021 as I shared in this blog, Storms of Life. Having said that, I know God used this storm to increase my faith and from which a powerful testimony comes from this. In this storm, my wife Mikaela was in the hospital with urosepsis, which is sepsis (blood poisoning) that originates from the urinary tract that requires immediate medical care as it can be deadly. I did not learn of it until this year, but apparently urosepsis has a mortality rate of 20-40% which is extremely uncomfortable to think that my wife had such a chance of dying. That was among one of my most difficult times in my life. Especially with it being Covid time as I was not allowed to be in the hospital by her side through this during the five days she was there. That alone crushed me even further.
Seeing how severely ill she was as the paramedics took her away still replays through my mind as if it just happened yesterday. I remember while being in prayer a day or two later the thought came through my mind, “What if she does not make it?“ Perhaps the enemy whispered this in my ear as I am not sure, but in that moment my prayerful response was, “Then I will thank God for the time He blessed me with her.“ I did not want to think about Mikaela passing away, but I knew there was a chance of this even though at the time I did not know it was as high as 40%. However, I also knew the calling that God gave us to come to Norway as missionaries and it did not make sense to me spiritually that God would draw Mikaela’s time on earth here to a close. Many prayers of intercession and prayers of healing were lifted up to God for Mikaela and she made a full recovery praise God! To this day I am extremely grateful for the many Christians in many different countries who prayed for her and us during that storm of life.
I share and add a piece of this story here in this blog because life is at times difficult, but our Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth is deserving of our praise and prayers of thanksgiving. When our relationship with God is faith based and not conditional based, we can make it through the most difficult storms of life because Jesus is Lord over all. To reference Mark 4:35-41, even when we fear for our lives in the midst of a fierce storm, Jesus the Prince of Peace is on the boat next to us asking us if we trust him as our Lord and Savior to help us through the storm. Do we place our faith in Jesus or ourselves in navigating the storms of life? From my personal experience it is better to place my faith in Jesus 😉
Abraham’s Faith Tested
As I write of my storm of life, it reminded me of the story of Genesis 22 which I will say why shortly. In this encounter with God, Abraham’s faith is tested as God commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. We can only imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind, but yet we see his faithful obedience. Upon arriving to the place where Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham turns to his servants and the following occurs…
5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.
We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Genesis 22:5 NLT
Those of you not familiar with this Bible story, God had made a covenant with Abraham that takes place in Genesis 17 and the future of that covenant promise involves Isaac in blessing the world through Abraham’s offspring. It did not make sense to Abraham, yet he faithfully obeyed as his relationship with God was faith based, not conditional based. Logically it did not make sense in what God asked of Abraham, yet he chose not to cling to Isaac, but rather to surrender him to God.
As Abraham picks up the knife to kill Isaac as the boy lays on the altar on top of the wood, an angel of the Lord stops Abraham. Verse 12 reads, “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Then Abraham looks up and behind him God provides a ram for the sacrifice of the burnt offering. The God who provides, yet also the God who tests.
Why am I reminded of God’s encounter with Abraham in Genesis 22 in regards to Mikaela and I’s storm of life? Like Abraham’s covenant with God, God seemed to be also working against our calling to serve as missionaries here in Norway and beyond with the chances of Mikaela dying from urosepsis. Logically it did not make sense to me that this would be God’s will. There was and is still work to be done. Would God really uproot us from the U.S. to move to another country far away from family only for Mikaela to die fourteen months later of serving in Norway? As Kathryn Kuhlman says, “Faith begins where reason and logic ends.“ In our journey of faith, we will not always understand what God is doing and that is why faith is significant in living in relationship as sons and daughters to our Father in heaven.
Thanksgiving in Community
Each year that Mikaela and I have celebrated Thanksgiving Day here in Norway, we regularly have Norwegians come up to us and say, “We should have Thanksgiving here in Norway as well!“ Recently at IMI Church we started a new tradition this November being a Fall Thanksgiving Party or in Norwegian we would say høsttakkefest. This is something we wanted to invite the church into in embracing this new tradition here in Stavanger, Norway with a prayer that it would go beyond the church, into the city and out into the country. We share about this Fall Thanksgiving Party as follows…
Imagine the rumor that a new tradition has established itself in the Stavanger region: thanksgiving parties that gather neighbors, acquaintances and just-become-acquaintances around the same table, with a focus on gratitude and belonging. Is there a more long-awaited tradition? Let's do it!
How? Keep it simple, have fun! Can you co-host with someone else? Can the guests bring something to the table, and then we eat together what is there? How about a round of thanks where everyone shares something they are grateful for over the past year? A simple party game that helps us to relax and laugh a little?
Who do we invite? The ones you want! But do you know someone who would have appreciated an invitation? Who also do not belong to the church?
When? Find a suitable evening during the month of November.
Gratitude – we need it, and God deserves it!
I believe one of the important parts of Thanksgiving is that you celebrate this time in fellowship with others. In other words, I believe thanksgiving is meant to be done in community and not alone. To me this reverberates throughout the Scriptures and also in the church that as the body of Christ we would celebrate and come together with prayers of thanksgiving in being grateful for what God has done.
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 NLT
To be a people who remember that God the Father gave his one and only son on the cross to save us from our sins. The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means “The Lord saves.“ The name of Jesus properly describes his role and purpose as our Prophet, Priest and King. May this bring us to a place of thankfulness as Christians that we would profess our faith and have a heart posture where we declare, “Thank You Jesus!“
Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Hebrews 9:11-15 NLT
[Verse 1]
Grace that flows like a river
Washing over me
Fount of heaven, love of Christ
Overflow in me
[Chorus]
Thank You, Jesus
You set me free
Christ my Saviour
You rescued me
[Verse 2]
Take this life delivered
A vessel of Your love
Wholly now devoted
To see Your kingdom come
[Chorus]
Thank You, Jesus
You set me free
Christ my Saviour
You rescued me
Thank You, Jesus
You set me free
Christ my Saviour
You rescued me