Thanksgiving Day was only a few days ago. It came with ominous warnings from health officials and the government to not meet together for the traditional family meal. To do so would likely greatly increase the spread of the Covid-19 virus, a disease against which we so far have very few defenses.
Of
course, Americans being who we are, many are too independently minded to heed
these warnings. It has been reported that travel both by air and by car over
Thanksgiving has been the highest since the pandemic hit our shores in March.
We
have yet to see if the warnings spoken by our government and by health care
officials and providers will bring about the great increase of infections,
hospital admissions and death. However, if our previous big holiday weekends
this year are any indication, all of this traveling and gathering will indeed
result on a much greater strain on our hospitals, and will cause many more
people to die.
The
reason that so many people are ignoring or flouting these warnings usually is
not because they do not think that there is no peril in the travel or the
gatherings. Some may believe there is no danger, but mostly people are
disregarding the threat because this pandemic has other negative effects on us
other than to our health.
Isolation is one of these. Isolation in any form is difficult, but isolation from family is the most severe of the strains. That is why when it comes to the traditional times of family gatherings, many people are willing to take the risk of getting sick.
Thanksgiving
2020.
Many
people would say that phrase is an oxymoron—contradictory terms. Many would say
that this is the most difficult year that they have ever encountered.
We
know what 2020 has brought: disease, hospitalization and death. Along with
these direct results of the pandemic that came to our shores this year, many
have suffered job losses, food insecurity, economic downturns, isolation and
loneliness. The list could go on. I have not even mentioned the political and
social bickering and accusations, or the fighting and the rioting that we have
endured this year. The list of 2020 would also have to include the devastating
weather events and fires that have ravaged great swaths of our country.
Thankful?
Taking into consideration all that we have had to endure, being thankful seems
a bit of a stretch. How can we be thankful in the year 2020?
Paul’s Advice
And
yet, Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “Give thanks in every circumstance, for
this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 BSB).
Every
circumstance? (We might ask)
He
also wrote to the Ephesians, “Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always
giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Ephesians 5:19-20 BSB).
Patience
is one thing. Endurance and survival another—but thankfulness?
A Psalm for 2020
O
God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore
us.
You
have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its breaches, for it
totters.
You
have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that
makes us stagger. (Psalm 60:1-3 NAS)
I
read these words in the book of Psalms this week. Many people would say that
they describe very well the state of our nation. In addition to us, there are
many nations in the world who would also say the same thing. Perhaps even most
nations.
Telling
someone that they should be thankful is one thing, but it is quite another to
be able to be thankful in the midst of severe trial and even great suffering.
And yet the Apostle Paul, who wrote to us that we should give thanks in every
circumstance, also writes these words: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say
it again: Rejoice!”
A Letter of Joy
That
last quote is from a letter that Paul wrote to the people in the church of
Philippi (Philippians 4:4). That letter is one of the most optimistic and
joyful writings of the Bible. In fact, it is often called “The Letter of Joy.”
In that short letter, the word joy or
rejoice is found more than a dozen
times.
Paul
begins the letter in this way: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In
every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy” (Philippians 1:3-4 BSB).
Paul
speaks so much of being joyful and being thankful that one may think that his
life was pretty much trouble free and that he did not know what it was to
experience true personal hardship. But the astounding thing is that he did not
write this joyful letter while on vacation at some beach resort on the
Mediterranean.
Paul
follows the joyful and thankful salutation above with these words: “For in my
chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partners
in grace with me” (vs 7).
What
did he mean—“in my chains?”
He
meant that as he wrote this joyful letter, he could hear the clanking of the
chains that were about his ankles. He was in prison. His incarceration was
because of the invented charges his accusers had brought against him, all
because he was teaching salvation through Jesus.
Indeed,
it was only a few years after he wrote this letter that he was executed. It is
thought that his execution may have been by the sword by the Roman executioner,
which was done by thrusting the heavy blade down through the top of the left
shoulder, into and through the heart, cutting through also the lungs and
sometimes as far as the liver.
Thankful in a
Cave
Likewise,
David of the Old Testament wrote many of his joyful Psalms not when he was
sitting on his royal throne when he ruled as the king of the then greatest
nation on earth. His words of joy came from his pen before he was the king and
was being hunted down to be killed by a jealous King Saul and his army.
He
writes in Psalm 59:
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
Set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me.
Deliver
me from those who do iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.
For
behold, they have set an ambush for my life;
Fierce
men launch an attack against me,
Not
for my transgression nor for my sin, O LORD,
For
no guilt of mine, they run and set themselves against me.
Arouse
Yourself to help me, and see! (vss 1-4 NAS)
These
words tell of the physical and emotional situation that he was in. They were
none short of desperate. But then he closes this Psalm with these words:
But
as for me, I shall sing of Your strength;
Yes,
I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For
You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O
my strength, I will sing praises to You;
For God is my stronghold,
The God who shows me lovingkindness. (vss 16-17 NAS)
Here
is another Psalm that David composed while hiding in a cave from Saul:
Have
mercy on me, O God, have mercy, for in You my soul takes refuge.
In
the shadow of Your wings I will take shelter[1] until
the danger has passed.
I
cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.
He reaches down from heaven and saves me;
He rebukes those who trample me…
My
heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.
I
will sing and make music.
Awake,
my glory!
Awake,
O harp and lyre!
I
will awaken the dawn.
I
will praise You, O Lord, among the nations;
I
will sing Your praises among the peoples.
For Your loving devotion reaches to the heavens,
And Your faithfulness to the
clouds.
Be
exalted, O God, above the heavens; may Your glory cover all the earth.
(Psalm
57:1-3; 7-11 BSB)
Paul
and David—these are men who knew how to be thankful in difficult circumstances.
Their joyfulness and thankfulness did not come because they ignored their
situations and pretended that all was just fine. They were not living in
denial. Their thankfulness came from another source within themselves.
Prayers for
Deliverance
In
his joyful letter, Paul does not deny that there are difficult circumstances,
but neither does he simply succumb to them and say nothing can be done. “Be
anxious for nothing,” he writes, “but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
As
we pray and as we give to God our requests, we shift the burden of the
circumstances from ourselves and onto God. We take the weight off our
shoulders, and give them to God. In turn, God gives us his peace.
Paul
continues, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The
Lord also gives us freedom from the worrying and fretting that comes with
bearing the burdens, and allows our minds to turn on more positive and fruitful
thoughts.
“Finally,
brothers,” Paul concludes, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if
anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things” (Philippians
4:6-8).
As
for David’s perspective, neither did he simply accept his conditions without
asking God for help. In the Psalms, he wrote these words:
When
You hid Your face, I was dismayed.
To
You, O LORD, I called, and I begged my Lord for mercy:
“What
gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit?
Will
the dust praise You?
Will
it proclaim Your faithfulness?
Hear
me, O LORD, and have mercy; O LORD, be my helper.”
You
turned my mourning into dancing;
You
peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
That
my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent.
O
LORD my God, I will give thanks forever. (Psalm 30:7-12 BSB)
I
waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He
lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay;
He
set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
He
put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. (Psalm 40:1-3 BSB)
It’s Not All
About Getting Us Out Of Present Difficulties
God
hears our requests. He hears our cries for help, but he also is doing something
in us that is much greater than we can presently see. God is working for
eternity. He knows that our greatest good is what will be accomplished from
what he is doing in us and teaching us through the present distresses we are
suffering.
Paul
understood this and David understood this.
“We
are hard pressed,” Paul writes, “but not crushed; perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…We do not
lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being
renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us
an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:8, 16-18).
David
writes:
Preserve
me, O God, for in You I take refuge.
I
said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing…”
The
LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.
The
lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places; surely my inheritance is
delightful.
I
will bless the LORD who counsels me; even at night my conscience instructs me.
I
have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not
be shaken.
Therefore
my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely.
You
have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your
presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand. (Psalm 16 selected verses
BSB)
Why We Can Be
Thankful in the Year 2020
The
year 2020 is not one that many will recall with fond memories. Actually, perhaps
that is the greatest thing of all for which we can be thankful. If this year
has taught us anything, it is that the pleasures that we truly seek will not
and cannot be found in these fleeting years that we have on this earth.
2020
can teach us that there is absolutely nothing
on earth that is 100% dependable, and that there is no place that cannot be
touched by what is occurring in the world. We cannot hide forever.
The
year 2020 can teach us that God alone is our refuge and our strength.
Teach
me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth.
Give
me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.
I
will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I
will glorify Your name forever.
For
great is Your loving devotion to me; (Psalm 86:11-13 BSB)
[1]
If we are to “shelter in place,” then it is good to take that shelter “in the
shadow of His wings.”
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