What can I thank God for?
Preamble: A little background so you can see where I’m coming from, then you will better understand where I’m going. I had a rough day yesterday and sunk into self-pity wondering when my god-awful life was going to turn around. Yet a few days earlier I was encouraging someone to be thankful (it’s funny how you are taught your own lesson). I am slowly learning that good things happen when I am thankful and my life goes down the pan when my head is in it. It’s not magic or even peculiarly biblical.
It’s good to thank God when you are happy, successful, content and life feels good but life’s pleasures can be deceitful. And it’s easy to forget God when prayer is routine rather than necessary; when you are crying out for others but have no obvious needs yourself.
The world is so deceitful that it will allow you to see its deceit to a depth that will satisfy your self righteousness and guilt and reward you for your apparent honesty and contrition. To this end you can hear sermon after sermon about the deceitfulness of wealth and what the world has to offer and be satisfied that you understand. You may convince your friends and be a shining example of someone who loves the Lord and cares for others, a standard for others to model their lives on.
But the heart is deceitful above all things (even the devil dresses as an angel of light). If you are poor you should delight in God because it is he who makes you rich; if you are rich you should delight in God because all you have can be taken away and your true wealth will not be touched. If you are poor don’t despise the rich because only God knows their hearts. If you are rich don’t despise the poor because God gave you your wealth. Think of yourself with sober judgement and take pride in what you do, not your position, because God can bring you down with a single blow and make you an object of scorn and derision. God has given us all the gift of life. To each one of us he has given gifts that we should administer in faith and faithfulness. God has given his grace freely and without condition to any that will call on him. For all these things we should be thankful.
God isn’t waiting to bring you down nor does he take great delight in bringing you to your knees to teach you humility. He is for you and not against you. He wants to build you up, not break you down but he is more interested in the state of your heart than the state of your bank balance. He can fill or empty your bank account but to fix your heart he needs some cooperation and a thankful heart is the easiest to work with.
Thankfulness is not the icing on the cake, it’s the grease that stopped it sticking in the baking tin.