This Sunday an elder in my church spoke about thankfulness versus complaining, from God’s perspective. What a relief it was to see that by embracing thankfulness, I could shed the discouragement that discontentment brings. I was inspired to realize that if I cultivated this heart posture in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I might be able to experience a more meaningful Thanksgiving.

This elder wrote in the sermon notes:

Over and over again throughout the Scriptures, we see an emphasis on the call to live a life of deep gratitude and thankfulness before the Lord and others as a witness of His character and faithfulness.

He made a point about how the Israelites were commanded to remember what God had done for them through yearly feasts.

Indeed, the biblical feast of Passover is in some ways like a Thanksgiving feast. Passover is an opportunity to remember how God saved the Israelites from slavery, judged their oppressors and preserved their lives through the blood of a sacrificial lamb. America’s Thanksgiving has historically been an opportunity to remember how God saved the lives of the Pilgrims, connected them with American Indians and gave them a bountiful harvest. Both are appointed days to remember and celebrate what God has done.

Another quote from the sermon notes:

Because the source of our life and joy comes from the Lord by the power of his Spirit, he takes it very personally when we grumble or complain and don’t walk in gratitude and thankfulness. Because it implies that He has not been faithful and not been good to us, and it bears a false witness about who God is and how he has worked in our lives.

I remember how personally God took it when the Israelites complained about their circumstances in the desert. They missed the foods they had enjoyed while oppressed in Egypt. Now they were free and eating the food God miraculously provided, manna, but it wasn’t meat, and they weren’t happy. The underlying message of their complaints: “You aren’t taking care of us, God. You aren’t good. What you’ve done for us isn’t enough to satisfy us.”

God was speaking to me in that sermon. I wasn’t feeling shame over my complaining. Instead, the truth of God’s perspective gave me a sense of relief. Thankfulness is the answer to feelings of discontent. And who wants feelings of discontent? We know we’re supposed to be satisfied in God, but what does that look like?

A Muslim Man Demonstrates the Power of Thankfulness

The elder talked about how comfortable we are in the West, and how impoverished people in other nations are often much happier and more thankful for the little they have than we are for our comparative riches. He invited comment, and I thought back to a video I had come across on my timeline over a month ago, shortly after October 7.

Now, I realize it may be hard to watch the following video without thinking politics. For the record, I’m for Israel’s right to exist.

What struck me about this video, though, is how, through tears, this man praises his god and says “That’s our destiny.”  Seems he really believes he has a good destiny. He puts his current loss of property in perspective. His thankfulness and praise are moving.

🇵🇸🇮🇱 Palestinian man interviewed after his home in Gaza was destroyed due to an IDF airstrike. pic.twitter.com/2JRHKSu8n4

— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) October 12, 2023

Also moving, in quite another way: the fact that his hope is in vain: Without faith in Jesus, he has no eternal hope to look forward to.

And yet, the strength of his faith moved an apparently non-Muslim commenter on X to praise Islam:

The Muslims faith in God is incredibly strong and incredibly respectable

It’s clear the values instilled in them by the Quran are extremely beneficial in any circumstance

My prayers go out to this man and all the others in similar situations

Allah is a false god who never displays the self-sacrificing love Yahweh reveals. The Quran is full of genocidal venom. Its prophet is a violent, vile man who married a little girl. Still, to their credit, Muslims tend to be deeply eschatological. They often live for an eternal reward beyond this life.

Christians, in contrast, have a true faith. But do we display this kind of hope, this kind of thankfulness? Wouldn’t we bring glory to the one, true living God if we kept our eyes on what God has done and will do for us?

“A Sacrifice of Praise”

The apostles did. Often persecuted, they went to their graves proclaiming the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of those who believe in Him. While in prison, Paul and Silas sang praises to God.

The elder quoted from Hebrews on thankfulness, based on our hope of all God’s promises being fulfilled:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:14-15)

No matter what shaking we experience in this life, we can and must be thankful for the coming kingdom that cannot be shaken. Earthly security will fail us, but we know God will establish a restored creation with a restored Jerusalem: the new heaven and the new earth. When we live in that city, we won’t have to worry about natural disasters or wicked, genocidal enemies’ attacks. God will save us from the evil of this world and from His wrath against the evil of this world. All who take refuge in Jesus will dwell in safety.

How Our Eternal Hope Becomes Practical

What has God saved you from? What has God saved you to? My hope, as I think about these things in the coming days, is that I’ll truly be ready on Thanksgiving, and every day, to offer God the thankful heart He deserves.

I leave you with one more verse from Sunday’s sermon. Psalm 7:17 says,

I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

 

Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer and proofreader for The Stream. You can follow Aliya on X @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.