Giving Thanks Always — O, Beloved!

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
—Ephesians 5:15–21 (ESV)

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He who would serve God must begin by praising God, for a grateful heart is the mainspring of obedience. We must offer the salt of gratitude with the sacrifice of obedience; our lives should be anointed with the precious oil of thankfulness. As soldiers march to music, so while we walk in the paths of righteousness we should keep step to the notes of thanksgiving. Larks sing as they mount, so should we magnify the Lord for His mercies while we are winging our way to heaven.

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The fire of gratitude will help to warm us—heap on the big logs of loving memories. No cold shall freeze the genial current of soul, our praise shall flow on when brooks and rivers are bound in chains of ice. Let us see which among us can best rejoice in the Lord in ill weathers.

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Beloved, after all it is but a light thing to render to our heavenly Father our poor thanks, after He has given us our lives, maintained us in being, saved us our souls through the precious redemption of Jesus Christ, given us to be His children, and made us heirs of eternal glory.

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He gives us breath, shall we not breathe out His praise? He fills our mouth with good things, shall we not speak well of His name?

Words are but air and tongues but clay,
And His compassions are divine.

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There ought not to be brought into the house a loaf of bread without thanksgiving; nor should we cast a coal upon the fire without gratitude. We eat like dogs if we sit down to our meals without devoutly blessing God. We live like serpents if we never rise to devout recognition of the Lord’s kindness. We ought not to put on our garments without adoring God, or take them off to rest in our beds without praising Him. Each breath of air should inspire us with thanks, and the blood in our veins should circulate gratitude throughout our system.

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The difficult point is to give thanks to Him for the bitter things, for the disguised blessings, for the love tokens that come to us from Him in black envelopes, for those benefits which travel to us via crucis, by way of the cross, which are generally the most heavily laden wagons that ever come from our Father’s country. We are to give thanks for the dark things, the cutting things, the things which plague and vex us, and disquiet our spirits, for these are among the ‘all things’ for which we ought to praise and bless God.

Doubtless, if our eyes were opened, like those of Elijah’s servant, we should see our trials to be amongst our choicest treasures. If we exercise the far-seeing eye of faith and not the dim eyes of sense, we shall discover that nothing can be more fatal to us than to be without affliction, and that nothing is more beneficial to us than to be tried as with fire. Therefore we will glory in tribulations also; we will bless and magnify the name of the Lord that He leads us through the wilderness that He may prove us, and that He may fit us for dwelling by-and-by in the promised land.

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The day will come, when we shall fulfill our text in the widest sense, for then we shall give thanks to God, at the winding up of the drama, of human history, for everything that has happened, from the fall even to the destruction of the wicked. We may not be able to do so now. Our eye sees the gigantic evil, and does not see the over-ruling good which, like a boundless sea rolls over all: the dreadful mysteries of evil make us tremble as we think of them; but the day may come when, with the Lord Jesus, we may not only bless God for electing love, but may even say, ‘I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.’

The day may come when even the darkest side of the divine decrees, and the profoundest depths of the divine action, shall cause us to adore with gratitude, and when even that which can least be understood in providence, shall no longer be the subject of awe-struck wonder, but of unspeakable delight. We shall trace the line of perfection along the course of the divine decrees and workings, and though the way of the Lord may have seemed to us to be inscrutable, we shall then adore Him for that wondrous display of all His attributes— His justice, His love, His truth, His faithfulness, His omnipotence — which shall blaze forth with tenfold splendor.

In heaven we shall give thanks to God always for all things, without exception, and throughout eternity we shall magnify His holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us do it as best we can today, God’s Spirit helping us.

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To the fullest performance of this duty there must be a subordination of ourselves to the will of God. We must not desire to have our own way; we must be content to say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” I cannot give thanks to God always for all things till my old self is put down. While self rules, the hungry horseleech is in the heart, and that is fatal to gratitude.

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There is no higher commendation for any course of action or for any virtue to a Christian man than to tell him that it will honour God. Will it dishonour God? He will shrink from it though mines of gold should tempt him. Will it honour God? The believer rushes forward to it though floods and flames lie in his way. A grateful spirit is a blessed and yet cheap way of honouring God, for it brings to us its own return. Like mercy, it is “twice blessed,” it blesses us in the giving and honours God in the receiving. Let the Christian see to it that he abounds in it.

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One of the truest excellencies of a spirit of perpetual thanksgiving is this, that it calms us when we are glad and it cheers us when we are sorrowful—a double benefit; it allays the feverish heat at the same time that it mitigates the rigorous cold. If a man be rich, and God has given him a thankful spirit, he cannot be too rich. If he will give thanks to God, he may be worth millions, and they will never hurt him; and on the other hand, if a man has learned to give thanks to God, and he becomes poor, he cannot be too poor, he will be able to bear up under the severest penury. The rich man should learn to find God in all things; the poor man should learn to find all things in God, and there is not much difference when you come to the bottom of these two causes. One child of God will be as grateful and as happy, as blessed and as rejoicing, as another, if he be but satisfied still to give God thanks. There is no evercoming a man a man who has climbed into this spirit. “I will banish you,” said a persecutor of the saints. “But you cannot do that,” said he, “for I am at home everywhere where Christ is.” “I shall take away all your property,” said he. “But I have none,” said the other, “and if I had you could not take away Christ from me, and as long as He is left I shall be rich.” “I will take away your good name,” cried the persecutor. “That is gone already,” said the Christian, “and I count it joy to be counted the offscouring of all things for Christ’s sake.” “But I will put you in prison.” “You may do as you please, but I shall be always free, for where Christ is there is liberty.” “But I shall take away your life,” said he. “Ay, well,” said the other, “then I shall be in heaven, which is the truest life, so that you cannot hurt me.” This was a brave defiance to throw down at the feet of the foe. It is not in the power of the enemy to injure the man of God when once self is dethroned and the heart has learned to be resigned to the will of God. O, ye are great, ye are strong, ye are rich, ye are mighty, when you have bowed yourselves to the will of the Most High! Stoop that you may conquer, bow that you may triumph, yield that you may get the mastery. It is when we are nothing that we are everything—when we are weak we are strong, when we have utterly become annihilated as to self, and God is all in all, it is then that we are filled with all the fullness of God. May the Holy Ghost conduct us into this spirit of perpetual thankfulness.

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Beloved, our crusty tempers and sour faces will never be evangelists. They may become messengers of Satan, but they will never become helpers of the gospel. To labour to make other people happy, is one of the grand things a Christian should always try to do. In little things we ought not to be everlastingly worrying, fidgeting, finding little difficulties and spying out faults in others. I believe that to a faulty man everybody is faulty; but there are better people in the world than you have dreamed of, sir, and when you are better you will find them out.

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If you want to catch flies, try honey.

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Put into your speech love rather than bitterness, and you will prevail.

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Beloved, may the Lord give us evermore a thankful spirit, and when we talk to each other, let it not be our habit as it is ordinarily with Englishmen—to complain of this and of that, but let us thank God and testify of His goodness.

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…dwell not upon our miseries but our mercies. Let us speak much of what God has given rather than of that which He has in love withheld from us; blessing Him rather than speaking ill of our neighbors, or complaining of our circumstances.

– “Always, And For All Things” - Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol XIX (C.H. Spurgeon)

If you want to catch flies, try honey.

Beloved? (gentle)

With this pithy statement, in mind, I’d like to make an appeal to our heart, please?

Not that I’m trying to compare the heart to a fly, necessarily – although, I might – but rather, I’d like to try and use words and phrases that are sweet in nature, like honey: gentle, kind, inviting – tender, to (hopefully) convince and compel us to give thanks in all times, even when it’s hard.

The heart, like a fly, isn’t only attracted to sweet things. It too, has a tendency to gravitate towards anything with a distinct curiosity for that which is…interesting, engaging, attractive. The fly buzzes about haphazardly, does it not? And, does he have any distinguishing taste whatsoever? No, beloved. (gentle) He wallows in both honey and that which is detestable alike.

Our heart isn’t much better. (sigh) It seeks comfort, affirmation, and pleasure - mostly. The heart is a…fickle thing, it seems – vulnerable, susceptible, and easily fatigued. (grieving)

The heart is delicate - aye. Yet, it is infinitely precious. For the heart is not only that which circulates nutrients throughout our body but, in a spiritual sense, beats with the capacity and aspirations of our Creator and Lord. It may be capricious, marred, broken, but it isn’t forgotten. We aren’t forgotten. God has, in His own mercy, and for His own sake, fixed His Love upon us.

Therefore, let us Together, please, speak softly with our soul, in an honorable, respectable manner okay? (gentle)

We are told, in Scripture, beloved, to give thanks always. Left unto itself, the implied benefits are more than sufficient, however, I love how Spurgeon expounds further and proves its advantage beyond the seemingly obvious, “…a grateful heart is the mainspring of obedience.“

Aye, obedience is hard. Obedience is…contrary to our human nature. And yet, obedience is clearly marked throughout Scripture as being correlated with blessing and peace. Obedience is commanded.

This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. — Deuteronomy 26:16

Indeed. May it be so, O Lord. (pleading)

Beloved? (gentle) Some days are happy, some are sad. Sometimes we stumble and fall, other times we shine bright. Whatever uncertainty or variability is perceived in our lot, one thing is certain: God is good. He is sovereign over all things, and He lovingly orchestrates His purposes for His glory and our good. We can rest in that. I believe He uses fear and trials to call us back to Him.

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. — Hosea 6:1

We can truly give thanks – always – beloved; for every circumstance, whether we like it or not, whether it brings with it joy or sorrow, for it is intentionally crafted by God Most High. And that, that, is all we need to know. That is sufficient. Let us take Him at His Word, let us take in His Word as our daily bread, it will sustain us and keep us. He will lead us Home.

Give thanks, always, O, my soul; the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever!