A storm was brewing visibly on the horizon. I could smell that familiar scent of fear.
How could I handle this new trial? I didn’t want more hurdles to feverishly conquer. I just wanted peace, no more problems that disturb and bring up unwanted memories from my past.
Have you ever read the book, “Putting Your Past In Its Place?” I am going through it presently in two different counseling cases. I appreciate Steve Viars’ easy-to-understand style and the way he organizes difficult elements of a person’s past.
One of the chapters describes how our past can be our worst enemy, but in the next chapter he points out that our past can also be our best friend. It depends on how you process what happened, and what God was doing as it happened. He brings out two examples from the Scriptures – David and Job.
In I Samuel 17 David is presented with Goliath’s taunts to the armies of Israel. David overhears the vulgar threats that Goliath is spewing out. Although not a part of the army, David expresses that he is willing to go and fight this giant. He describes to those who try to stop him that in his past God helped him to kill the lion or the bear that came to take one of his sheep that he was watching. He recalled the past blessing of God and it poured courage over him to again trust the LORD for the present challenge.
Likewise in Job 2:10, Job is hit with intense difficulties, even to the point where his wife urges him to curse God and die. But Job responds with:
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Job remembered all the good God had showered upon him. He let his past help him process his present.
Thankfulness Builds a Resevoir
Developing thinkful neural pathways in your brain can actually reshape a hard past into a faithful friend. You learn to recognize God’s fingerprints. You see deeper than the scarred surface. You record day after day blessings from God that He graciously bestows. You learn to trust this incredible God that is sovereign and loves His children deeply.
You develop a knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2b-3). This knowledge, this mental thinkfulness, prepares you so that when you are faced with new challenges, you can call on your past as a trusted friend for perspective, wisdom, comfort, and courage.
Rehearsing the Past
God commanded the children of Israel to teach their children about how God had helped them in the past.
“… when your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘what do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”
Joshua 4:21-24
It is the Father’s will for us to remember how He helped us in the past, and by remembering, we would be emboldened to trust more presently.
God tells us in Romans 15:4 that whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Begin Building
Prepare yourself today for the battles coming tomorrow. Develop thinkful patterns to equip yourself to fight the sorrow and doubts that will doubtless tempt you in days to come. Have a reserve of trusted friends from the past that will testify to your shaking faith that indeed our God IS faithful! He helped us in the past and He will help us now. He will not leave nor forsake us. He will not stop loving us. He will weave all things together for our good, conforming us steadily into the image of Jesus. And one day He will come for us. Why? Because He promised and He never lies!!
LET THE PAST BECOME YOUR FRIEND!
“Careful readers will recognize that what we are really talking about here is thanksgiving. Both Job and David developed the discipline of acknowledging God’s blessing and continually building a reservoir of memories and lessons from which to draw.”
Stephen Viars, Putting Your Past In Its Place, page 52
Picture from my past where my family was sharing about Jesus
Dick Hester was not that person. He expressed his encouragement and gratitude frequently and beautifully. He was a Barnabas … a son of encouragement.
I remember multiple times, while he would be encouraging David or myself, if he heard of a difficulty we were encountering, he would ask, “Can we just stop and pray about that right now?” Precious memories!
In the last few days we received word of his graduation to heaven. He will be sorely missed.
Chris Anderson reminded us of one of the quotes that Pastor Hester is known for: “Unexpressed gratitude is ingratitude.”
How often we are guilty of that! We may actually feel gratitude and even meditate on our thankfulness, but the sentiment does not leave our mouths or pens or keyboards. We do not express our thankfulness orally or write it down. Hence it looses its potential to encourage another person. I am not sure why we hesitate to express our gratitude. Perhaps we are introverted or private people, or we don’t want to give the impression that we are trying to impress someone. But often, it’s simply because we don’t think of expressing our thanks.
The expression of our gratitude, whether small or great, brings a reaction. It is received by others and stimulates them to similar conduct. We have released the gratitude to go and do its job. It is good to be thankful for something, but it is best if we can connect the blessing with its source and be thankful to someone for something.
Look around you. Is someone planning, teaching, or serving in some way? Are you thankful for it? Have you said anything to them? This is what Dick Hester specialized in. He would come up to you, take your arm, and say that he had been watching you and was just so thankful for what you did or said. No one else said a thing, like ever. But Dick would encourage you by expressing his thankfulness for you … and you would float away with this private joy. Why is it that people so often say at a man’s funeral the things they should have said to him in life?
Unexpressed Faith
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
James 2:17
Thankfulness is like two other virtues … faith and love. Private, personal faith is dead, lifeless, worthless. Living faith creates energy. True faith works. It has symptoms that people can see, and if they get near you, that faith can be infectious.
“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Romans 10:10
Paul emphasizes the connection between the heart and the mouth – believing and speaking. If we refuse to express our faith in the Lord Jesus, it communicates that we are not truly saved. Living faith creates energy and needs to speak.
The same is true of love. Living love creates energy that oozes out somewhere, someway. What kind of foolish nonsense is a love that is unexpressed, that does not affect your actions or words or even your pulse rate? Faith, love, and thankfulness all express themselves. Unexpressed faith, love, and thankfulness are bizarre, stunted, undeveloped, and useless distortions of the real virtues.
Take Courage, My Friend
In light of our dear Dick Hester’s home-going, can I encourage you to take courage? Ask God to help you express your gratitude to another person today. Make it a daily goal to express some kind of gratitude every single day. You may not have many of those days left.
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
William Faulkner
We may disagree with Faulkner to some degree. You can stop and think and direct your thanks to God as obedient worship and it would qualify as gratitude, but Faulkner does have a point. The essence of being th(i)nkful is expressing your gratitude orally or in a written form.
“What if you woke up this morning and had only the things you thanked God for yesterday?”
How would you describe a man whose mother was the ninth wife of a polygamist, and due to persecution by the other wives, chose to flee from the home forever leaving her toddler baby boy to grow up as the abandoned one among all the “other children?” He would never see her again.
When he reached his primary school years, there was so much strife in the home that he left as well, becoming a street-kid sleeping outside under bridges or wherever. Amazingly, he cheerfully and dutifully did odd jobs for people in town to buy food and pay his own way through primary school. In his early teens, he returned home only to find that his father and family were involved in intense witchcraft, so he fled home again.
As he worked his way through high school, there was a German-language teacher who had the boys come to his home for a meal, and he shared the gospel with them. God spoke to this young man’s heart, and he received Christ. He received forgiveness for his sins and a new purpose for living.
A few years later, as he grew in his faith, he worked his way through engineering school, but while working as an engineer, God called him into ministry. Now a pastor for more than a decade, he is finishing his Masters in Theology with NTCGS (National Theological College and Graduate School). David had him in his latest class.
How would you describe such a person given his horrific childhood? Would you have described him as “Blessed?” His name is Paddy Blessed Musoke.
David and Paddy (Paddy gave me permission to tell his story)
Choosing God’s Perspective
As we discussed God’s purposes in suffering during our class time, David mentioned the seven initial responses Christians should have when facing suffering:
God is God and I am not (Ps. 115:3, Is. 40:13-14).
God’s ideas and plans are far beyond my human understanding (Is. 55:8-9).
God is the sovereign over all calamities in and around my life (Job 36:32, 1 Sam. 2:6-7, Is. 45:7, Lam. 3:38, Amos 3:6, Nahum 1:3). Nothing/no one touches me without His love, permission, and design (Rom. 8:28).
God knows exactly what I can handle with His grace, though it seems more than I can handle; He is holding back a crushing amount of suffering that might destroy my faith (1 Cor. 10:13, Dan. 3:17, 2 Pet. 2:9).
God loves me with an everlasting love; He is always good; He is faithful and will never leave me (Psalm 119:67-68, 71, Is. 43:2, Jer. 31:3).
God calls me to be resolutely thankful for so much during my suffering (Phil. 4:6, 1 Thess. 5:18).
I am the servant of the Lord, immortal, invincible, and indestructible until the Lord is finished with me, and then eager to go Home when He calls me (2 Cor. 5:1-9).
Paddy came up after class and after sharing his story, related that during his devotion time in November 2023, he sensed the Lord asking him to thank Him for his hard past, for his painful childhood and difficult memories. “Thank me, Paddy.” It seemed so odd and horrible that the Spirit would ask this … and yet he knew that God had already used his past pain and street smarts in ministry. With tears, he agreed and thanked the Lord … and felt a huge burden lift from his soul knowing that the Lord had built sovereign foundations into his life, making him the man and minister that he is. He thoughtfully nodded and told us, “It is important to be thankful in all things.”
Setting Up God For A Fall
Your view of God is the most important thing about you. To the extent your view is flawed, it will distort, disturb, and disrupt your perceptions of yourself and your circumstances. Your real theology comes out in a crisis, like the squeezing of a sponge reveals whatever is inside. To use another analogy, trials are the tornado that tears off the “street view” your formal beliefs leaving exposed the basement of your functional beliefs.
There are several common ways that Christians think about God that “set Him up for failure” when they begin to suffer. In other words, popular teaching as well as the hymns and choruses we sing require more of God than the Scriptures do, so that when we suffer, we feel He has failed us, wasn’t there for us, did not hear us, or refused to respond to our deepest needs. Let’s look at some of these flawed views:
GOD IS MY GENIE – “When I call on Him, He has magical power to grant my wishes and fix my problems.”
GOD IS CHIEFLY MY FRIEND – “My friends don’t hurt me or let me down but run to help me in hard times however they are able … and God has infinite ability.”
GOD HAS MY IDEA OF LOVE – “God’s love is like my love for my children, wanting only happy and positive things so that I can thrive, and His power guarantees me a smooth ride in life.”
I HAVE FAITH IN FAITH – “If I believe, pray, and give enough, it will go well for me. If God doesn’t answer, there is some unknown sin or problem with me that is stopping Him.”
PSALMS AND PROVERBS ARE PROMISES – “If I do what is right, God will make things good. As my shield and defender and Shepherd and Rock, He won’t allow bad things to happen to me.”
ALL THE PROMISES OF SCRIPTURE APPLY TO ME – “As a Christian in the modern Church Age, I can claim as my own the promises God gave to ancient Israel at any time, even those given during unique circumstances.”
“None of these diseases shall come near me” – Exodus 15
“No weapon formed against me shall prosper” – Isaiah 54
“He only has thoughts of good and not evil” – Jeremiah 29
God has some great relational titles: Creator, Father, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Crafter, Comforter, and Guide. I love all of those. But genie and friend are not on the list. There are no such verses that explicitly say so, and those who say God is in those roles often turn their backs on Christ, the Church, and the faith when hard trials come. “How could God … ?!” And they turn away from a God who is silent or busy or not there or not very loving. Their wrong view of God set Him up for a fall.
The role of the Holy Spirit as our Comforter is perhaps closest to the role of a friend, but God is not committed to making it easy and nice for His children as friends typically are. Ask the Old Testament prophets. Ditto John the Baptist. Ditto Jesus. Ditto all of the Apostles. Ditto the faithful martyrs through the centuries. We are caught up in the workings of a much greater plan than we can imagine, and often we need more personal shaping than we can imagine, so God’s work involves our suffering.
So when God’s Word says to give thanks in all circumstances, He knows that this will be grueling for some of us. And yet, it is curative. It embraces with tears the background sovereign purpose and design behind all our pain and loneliness so that, as Rutherford wrote, I can “praise God for the hammer, the file (rasp), and the furnace.”
“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
I met Fifi for the first time five years ago. She was a 7 Rivers Outreach missionary living on the farm. As we got into the work here in KwaZulu-Natal, I began to understand how valuable this little giant was to the team.
Born on the side of the road in Amahlongwa and facing abuse while growing up in the community around 7 Rivers, Fifi knew the people, the history, and the challenges.
At the age of 16, she trusted in Christ alone for her salvation. It was not easy, but she had watched her adopted father minister to others in home-based care, interpreting while her father shared the gospel with them. Her heart had been touched and softened. One day, she bowed to the Lord and received His precious gift of forgiveness of all her sins, from the cradle to the grave.
Fifi then went to Word of Life Bible Institute for a year to grow in her Bible knowledge and walk with Christ. Afterwards, she amazingly returned to 7 Rivers to work as a missionary, visiting homes and sharing the gospel predominantly with our nearby children. When others would typically run away from such a past, Fifi returned.
As believers in Jesus Christ, one of our motivations for sharing the gospel is that the more believers there are, the more thanksgiving will be given to God. Fifi has been a faithful evangelist in the valley for years now, speaking about Christ with her peers, running a kids’ soccer ministry several times a week, and helping me by interpreting our weekly evangelistic Bible studies with local marginalized women. As a result of her work, more people are giving thanks to God.
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:15
Pulling In Closer
I got the privilege of mentoring Fifi. We would meet to study God’s word together, memorize Scripture, talk about how the Bible was worked out in our daily lives, and close by praying together.
We must have gone through at least three to four books together. Godly, wise counsel often comes from good books. One great one that we worked through was “Putting Your Past in Its Place,” by Steve Viars. That is one we both would highly recommend.
Fifi is so edifying to me personally. I love to hear her pray. She has a heart for sharing the gospel and see people’s lives change.
Glorifying God in the Waiting Room
Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14
Fifi had her share of disappointments, but God was always there, guiding and comforting her. We prayed often together that God would bring a godly man into her life if that was His will. I remember distinctly when she finally said that she was not looking anymore. She was going to just obey the Lord and work for Him and not worry about getting married.
Funny. Right after that, God brought Bongani into the picture. God often seems to do that. He wants us to yield to His choice, His time, and His ways.
Only God could have brought this couple together. She didn’t think he existed; he didn’t think she existed. But then there was a conference at which they met. So thankful for God’s ways and purposes.
They get married next month. So happy for them.
Thinking Thanks
As we approach the time Fifi will be leaving us, I wanted to express my thanks to God for this lady.
Fifi loved so many people in the community and helped them. Here she is giving Mabongi a ride.
Fifi interpreted faithfully for me as I taught the ladies through Colossians, then James, and now the Gospel of Mark. She wants the handout early so she can carefully prepare to use the right Zulu words. She takes God’s Word seriously and wants to be pleasing to the Lord in how she gets the meaning across.
But…..Fifi’s heart was with the kids. She loved the children and wanted them to be safe and to be able to hear about Jesus and the hope we have in Him. That is why she is so excited about the construction of the Thola Centre in the nearby village of Olwasini. 🙂
We had the privilege of having Fifi stay with us in the US for a short time and she was even a blessing to our daughter Elly, who designed the African dolls that we sell.
Thankful Admonition
So as we go through this season of wedding preparations, I wanted her to remember lessons we studied together when we memorized Colossians 3. I shared these seven reminders:
Set your mind on things above (vv 1-2)
Put on compassionate hearts…. forgiving each other (vv 12-13)
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts (v 15)
Be thankful (vv 15-17)
Speak and sing God’s Word to each other (v 16)
Submit and pray for Bongani (v 18)
Work heartily as to the Lord (v 23)
God is faithful through every season of life. We will miss our Fifi so much, but we are thankful for the new challenges that lie ahead for her and for us. God is faithful every step of the way until we finally get to see Him face to face.
“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!”
Helen Roseveare was being forcibly pushed down the corridor of her simple Congolese mission home. The Rebels had attacked. Now it was her turn. They had smashed and demolished her home, saying they were looking for something.
As she was being physically abused, her mind called out to God, “Where are you?” Suddenly, she felt His presence and it was like He was asking her a question:
“Can you thank me for trusting you with this hard experience even if you don’t know why?”
The way we view God says everything about us.
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
A.W.Tozer
Helen Roseveare was a servant of the Most High God who had given Him her life, her everything. After graduating from Cambridge Medical College she wanted to spend her life serving God as a missionary. She studied tropical medicine and French, and then took off for the Congo.
The Lord allowed great suffering in her life, but she was able to process her trauma as a privilege to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10).
Grace Infusion
My husband and I are serving in KwaZuluNatal, South Africa. We are involved in a rural ministry called 7 Rivers Outreach based out of nearby Grace Baptist Church in Amanzimtoti. Recently we began building our first Community Centre called the Thola Centre. It is so exciting to see the walls being built and to imagine the ministry that will take place within those walls. We, too, are looking to build a health clinic at that site. It will not be a hospital or even close to what Helen Roseveare was involved in, but it will be a start.
When I read about Helen’s attitude when she went though such hardship, my heart was pricked. Would I have responded in that manner? I am not sure I would have. I marveled at the way she was processing things that could have completely destroyed her. Even when enduring the gruesome act of rape, she said that she had given her body to the Lord and that when they hurt her, they were hurting the Lord Jesus. If you are interested in learning more about Helen, click on her name above.
When we go through different kinds of “hard,” there is a grace infusion into us that is not normally there. With the trial comes the grace. I can walk with my God, my Abba, my Shepherd today and know that He will never leave me, nor forsake me. He has promised to be with me to the end of the age. Helen’s faith enabled her to download that grace infusion to process her trauma with His help.
Can You Thank Me?
But with a great trial and His grace-infusion rising in equal measure, God at times communicates inaudibly to your soul. Amidst all the noise and jostling, she heard Him ask her something. She later wrote about His puzzling question:
“Can you thank me for trusting you with this hard experience even if you don’t know why?”
There is a big difference between thanking God in the trial and thanking God for the trial. When we fully are able to see God as completely sovereign and trustworthy, we move into a different category. God would give both a sense of His presence and His grace to mentally-emotionally process the trauma she would go through. Like Israel, God would send her through fire and deep waters, but He would be with her.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” (Isaiah 43:2)
Toward the end of his trial, God communicated with Job, not answering why he was suffering, but describing His own creative genius and power such that Job was left speechless. When Job got this inside and over-the-top view of who God really was, he was able to process his trauma differently. Instead of accusing God, Job put his hand over his mouth (Job 38-42).
God is God, and I am not.
“Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.”
Psalm 135:6
Lord, help me to trust You even when I don’t understand all that You are doing. Help me to walk by faith and cling to Your grace and peace.
Helen went home to be with the Lord at the age of 91. The Lord was faithful to her to the end. He didn’t shield her from harsh difficulties, but He helped her through them. She was even able to be thinkful, to think thanks for the most gruesome happenings, because she fully acknowledged the control and unknown purposes of her Master and Savior (Isaiah 55:8-9) and she entered into the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10).
“The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
Acts 16:22-24
This photo is the alleged site in Philippi in which Paul and Silas were thrown into prison.
Paul and Silas had been obeying God and had shared the good news of the gospel with the people of Philippi. The Lord had opened one lady’s heart to the message; Lydia repented and believed. This was a new type of city for Paul on his missionary journey. He was trying to stay in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), but God had miraculously led him to cross over to Europe, to Macedonia. Philippi was the first stop. They didn’t even have ten devout Jewish men in that city to justify a Jewish synagogue.
Lydia, a business woman who dealt in purple fabric, was the first European convert. On the other end of the social spectrum was a slave girl who was demonized, and through the Apostle Paul’s prayer and rebuke, she was set free. These two were certainly very unlikely beginnings for a missionary’s church-planting strategy on a new continent. God works in mysterious ways. His ways are so much better than our ways.
But then Paul and Silas, in God’s providence, were taken captive and abused. This was illegal since they were Roman citizens. But the LORD was working out His plan through the stripping and beating and imprisonment. He loves His children, but often uses their suffering in this fallen world to accomplishes His greater purposes. Think Jesus.
Worship is Responding to God’s Sovereign Control
This is one of my favorite accounts in scripture. Paul and Silas were so convinced of the Lord being with them and working through their hardship that they reacted with worship!!! Can you believe it?
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them …”
Acts 16:25
They were thinking thanks. They were th(i)nkful! They were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus’ sake. They followed the example of the other apostles in the first church in Jerusalem (Acts 5:40-41). Perhaps they thought, “We are privileged to suffer at the hands of religious and government leaders … just like our Lord Jesus. We must be doing something right, and God must be doing something good!”
When we encounter hardships, do we have this kind of reaction?
It is interesting to note that the other prisoners were listening to Paul and Silas praying and singing. Who sings in prison? They were pondering these echoing words of worship, which had to be sincere because there was no visible audience, and most prisoners would say that their god was punishing them or had failed them because they were in prison. But not these two.
The other prisoners also witnessed the miracle that God was about to perform.
God Intervenes
“… And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.”
Acts 16:26
The LORD God chose to intervene and send an earthquake and break the chains. This resulted in the Philippian jailer believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. His family also believed when they heard Paul speak. They were baptized right then. Wow!
How Does That Affect Karin?
On July 2, my husband and I arrived in the US after a long 43 hour trip from Amanzimtoti, SA. We were weary from a very full and demanding week of our first 7 Rivers children’s camp. Switching cultures can be exciting, but also draining and difficult when you are bone-tired. We felt low. It was even David’s birthday and I felt I had not properly prepared enough to express my deep, deep love and gratitude for my dear husband.
Sleep is a very good thing! The next morning we both were encouraged to keep on keeping on. Then I listened to a message that our son Joshua had preached the day before. It was on Acts 16:11-40. As the Spirit spoke through His Word and through our son, my faith was edified. I started to meditate on Paul and Silas praying and singing in that prison. I started to think about how God uses weak things to do His work….. like using me. He is the One that deserves all the glory. He delights in our weakness so that His strength can be made perfect in us.
Thank You, my Father, for helping me look to Jesus. This world is passing away. We must have ETERNITY stamped on the back of our eyelids. We look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame…. (Hebrews 12:2).
How Does That Affect You?
Do you respond to whatever is difficult in your life like Paul and Silas did in the yucky prison in Philippi? They saw God’s hand in their circumstances, and they practiced God’s presence by singing to Him.
God is micromanaging the good and bad circumstances in your life. Bad things happening has nothing to do with the way God feels about you if you are a true born-again believer. Jesus lived in near constant heat and discomfort without running water, electricity, or wifi, pressed by the crowds, traveling constantly, sleeping under the stars often, verbally abused and gossiped about by leaders, misunderstood by His disciples, and eventually betrayed by one of His own. This is the type of life the Father chose for the Son of His love.
God is not primarily our friend. He is the Author of history who is working out His infinitely complex plan. He is our Father. He is our coach putting us through structured suffering at times. And God is watching. And God rewards. Think thanks to God that you are loved and part of His plan, that He is in control, that His character is fully trustworthy, and that His mercies are new every morning.
“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love.”
Probably most of you who read this blog have something hard in your life….something that you could in one way or another call a “thorn.”
Why is that? We want to fix things and try to get to that place in our lives where everything is going well, going smoothly, where everything is figured out, and everything is under control … but usually that’s an elusive place, and that euphoria never comes. The Lord seems to purposefully work through “thorns” in our lives for our good.
The Lord certainly doesn’t promise to keep us from thorns, rivers, or furnaces. In fact, He specifically tells us that He will be with us through those difficult times.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:2
We pray, “God, deliver me from the furnace, from the floods, from the thorns!” But God providentially controls those things, and even sends those things, for His reasons … and with His company. He often says, “My child, I sent those to deliver you from you. I want to see My Son in you.”
Studying how Paul dealt with his thorn gives some clarity as to God’s view on our difficulties. Paul was so frustrated with this thorn that he asked three times if God would please remove it.
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh …”
2 Corinthians 12:7
God answered that His grace was sufficient for him, that His power was made perfect in weakness.
We are not sure what Paul’s thorn was. Some have speculated that it was epilepsy, or perhaps his eyesight, maybe even recurring malaria. Others have guessed that it was a vexatious person who kept dogging and opposing Paul wherever he went. Perhaps it is a good thing that we don’t know what type of thorn it was so that we can insert our own thorn to learn how to handle these challenges.
Paul was entrusted with this difficulty to keep him from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations he had received. The hardship countered the negative side effects of blessing. This hardship was carefully designed by the Lord for Paul’s own good and for the good of the churches that heard and read his words.
How Did He Handle It?
A few years after 2 Corinthians was written, Paul was put in prison in Rome. It was during this time in the early 60’s AD that Paul wrote what we call “the Prison Epistles” ~ Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. No doubt his thorn was still bothering him, but he chose to continue to serve the Lord and write these letters to encourage and instruct the believers. From what God was teaching him, he shared through the inspiration of the Spirit with others.
Paul knew that God has a big picture of everything going on, even in his individual struggles and challenges. Paul looked at himself as a servant of God called to accomplish a lifelong mission. He understood that the goal in life was not to be trouble-free, pain-free, bump-free, and bend-free … but instead to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
One of the skills Paul had learned to cope with thorns was to think thanks in every aspect of his life, even living with the thorn. One of these Prison Epistles is Colossians. Take a closer look at how Paul highlighted thinking thanks in that letter.
Thankfulness in Colossians
Colossians has special interest to me. It only has four chapters, but in every single chapter there is a verse dealing with thankfulness. In fact, in chapter three there are three verses in a row that address thankfulness!
Do you know where in the world Colossae is? It is located in modern day Turkey.
Epaphras had been changed in Ephesus! He had heard Paul speak and Epaphras had responded and trusted in Jesus as the Messiah. He was so changed that he had to take the news of the gospel back to his home in Colossae.
He shared that Jesus had come and died and that he had risen again. Through Jesus’ work on the cross we could have forgiveness of sins and be adopted into the family of God. We could be reconciled to the Creator from the breach that our sin had caused going all the way back to Adam. The second Adam had come and fixed things!!
This is a picture of modern day Colossae.
The people of Colossae responded in faith. They believed and a church was established there.
Later there were some heresies that started to creep into the church, and Epaphras was so concerned that he travelled all the way to Rome to talk to Paul. Although Paul never actually visited that church, he prayed fervently for them. So Paul is writing this letter to encourage them and help them grow in their walk in Christ. And although he is in prison, Paul doesn’t ask for blankets, food, medicines, or visits. His ability to give thanks in his circumstances freed him to focus on others.
One of the fruits of being in Christ is being th(i)nkful. Look at how Paul addresses thankfulness in the four chapters:
In chapter one, Paul shares a prayer that he prays for the believers in Colossae. He prays for them to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. In verse twelve Paul prays for them to give thanksto the Father. He knows that thinking thanks and expressing it, is part of the mature Christian life.
In chapter two, he admonishes the Colossians to walk in Christ, being rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, abounding in thanksgiving.
In chapter three, Paul gives three verses in a row, 15-17, that include thanksgiving. “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts….and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
In the fourth and last chapter, Paul starts out with verse one encouraging the believers to continue in prayer, being watchful with thanksgiving.
What About Your Thorn?
Thanking God for your thorn, for your flood, for your furnace, is only done through the work of Christ in you. It is only as we view our human suffering in light of the gospel that things start to make sense. This life is momentary, our suffering is not even worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8:18). As we begin to see through the glasses of God’s perspective, we can even join James in counting it all joy as we see the trials develop steadfastness and endurance in us.
Could you take any help from Paul in the book of Colossians? Do you process things in your life with th(i)nkful glasses? Could you wrap that yucky thorn with thinking thanks of how it is making you like Jesus?
I am not saying it is easy, just that when we process the thorn God’s way, it changes us.
“Don’t go, Daddy!” The girls clung to their dad as he tried to go, walking towards the gangplank. Flo tried to think that it would only be a short time before Eric would join her and the girls in Canada. WWII had begun, and the roil in Europe and the Pacific was demanding many sacrifices from everyone.
The Japanese invaders had given foreigners in China the option to leave or to stay in “internment camps.” The Liddells had both felt that the Lord wanted Eric to stay and help with the work as much as he could, but Flo, expecting their third, and their two precious girls would head to Canada for safety.
Eric and Florence had met in China, both being from missionary families. Eric had used his athletic prowess to further the gospel. Although an Olympic champion, he chose to spend his life on the mission field in China, where he was born.
Eric Liddell would never see his dear wife and beautiful girls again. He died in the Japanese internment camp. I will not spoil it for you, but wow, this was a good biography.
How Flo Reacted
The news of Eric’s passing would be brought to Flo’s door in Toronto, Canada.
She had been able to have contact with Eric to a degree, but things had become more sporadic as the war progressed. There was such hope and vision of being together again in the near future. The news came as such a heavy loss. Eric had succeeded in being a humble, cheerful, and encouraging person who was full of optimism even in dire circumstances in that internment camp. Now she had to find a new normal without him. She had to provide for the girls. The mantle was daunting.
As I read this biography of a person David and I highly admired, I was impressed with the words that Flo penned shortly after his death.
“I have been numbed and overwhelmed by a sense of unreality – of pain – of fear for the future and then there has come welling up from within that power of faith which has carried me through. My faith has been wonderfully strengthened. In looking back I have so much to be thankful for. God has provided so wonderfully – we have been so happy and I know that He is working out His purpose and that good can come out of even this.”
Florence Liddell
The grieving process took its time with great challenges, but underneath were the everlasting arms of her Savior.
She chose to think thanks even when ambiguity and anxiety could have drowned all hope.
When reading about Flo’s response to the horrific news that her husband had passed away, I could not get over the grace that seemed to pour into, and then out of, her.
She utters her numbness and feelings of being overwhelmed, but she also expresses her faith being strengthened, and she notes how many things she is thankful for, like having enjoyed as much happiness in a few years as many couples did in a whole lifetime.
Two Heros
My husband and I have admired Eric Liddell for a long time. He is one of our heroes. His humble and kind way with believers and nonbelievers, his mediating disputes between people in the internment camp, his counseling of teens, and and his organizing activities for teens and children in the internment camp were evidences of his dogged commitment to Christ and to being Christlike.
When visiting our daughter and her husband in China back in 2018, we had the privilege of seeing the place where Eric died in that Japanese internment camp. It is in Weifang, China. There is a lovely Chinese memorial to all those who lived and died in that camp, and a special statue to Eric, whom the Chinese claim as the first person from China to win Olympic gold.
Learning more about Florence Liddell has given me fodder to have two Liddell heroes; not just Eric but his wife as well.
I wonder how I would have responded in similar circumstances? How would you have?
Fostering a thinkful habit of always looking for things for which to be thankful is beneficial indeed. In everyday life, it bolsters our perspective and strengthens our faith as we joyfully obey the I Thessalonians 5:18 command of giving thanks in all circumstances.
But when those once-in-a-lifetime heavy blows come, thinking thanks is a matter of life and death – of angst, bitterness, and even insanity on one hand, and of perspective, trust, and recovery on the other. Unless we have a relationship with the Sovereign One who can be trusted in all the unexpected (for us) events that come, we are doomed.
Challenge
So what about you? Do you have a heavy, big blow that has come into your life? Has it already passed? Perhaps it has not come yet? What are you doing to prepare yourself to weather the storm that surely will present itself?
Put into action today the pieces that build a strong foundation in your mind when the battle engages. It is almost impossible to start forming a godly habit as the bullets fly, the cannons flare, and the missiles howl. You must have forged those convictions before the combat begins.
Develop a daily habit of recording things for which you give thanks…. from the mundane to the big.
Exercise a Psalm 50:23 way of life:
“The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me: to the one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.”
It was hidden way up in the cupboard. I only ran across it as I was looking for something else, but there it was…a simple gift from our oldest son, Joshua. I received it at Christmas because he knew it would be so very precious to me. I had read it, but had forgotten just how precious it was. I read it again and tears started to fill my eyes. I shared it with David, my husband, and he read it, too. He, likewise, was touched by its contents.
So what was it???
It was a handwritten note on two sheets of plain paper expressing our son’s thanks to me for influence in his life. Powerful.
“It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich!”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Put It Up On The Wall!
“I need help from you all to remember to be thankful,” she said. “So I want you to write out something you are thankful for and post it on the wall.”
Grace had an ingenious way of promoting thinking thanks for her family.
She created a place on her wall where the family could stick post-it notes with things that they were thankful for. As you passed by that wall throughout the day your mind was prompted to think on things that you were thankful for.
Later they would take down the papers and read them at supper time. What a great way to forge a brain neural pathway of thinking thanks! They have graduated to writing them down in a journal now so that they will not loose all the little slips of paper. They want to remember the things for which they were thankful.
This was like writing a long thank you letter to the Lord for who He is and things He had done.
Biblical Example
When Paul wrote 13 letters, preserved as “books” in the New Testament, he often began by rehearsing his thanks to God for the recipients of that letter. Actually, Paul mentions the topic of thankfulness at least 46 times in his 13 letters, sometimes exhorting others to give thanks (as in Colossians 3:15-17), and other times expressing his own thankfulness.
Interestingly, the phrase “thank you,” occurring nine times in the ESV Bible, is never directed to another person or group. “Thank you” is always directed to God in the Scripture. But Paul began almost every letter with some version of, “I thank God for you.”
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” Colossians 1:3
Paul voiced his thankfulness for people. He encouraged them with his words. He thoughtfully included his gratitude under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was going to be conveying great truths in his epistles that would mold the Church for centuries to come, and in some cases rebuking them for their sinfulness and blindness, BUT right there at the beginning of his letters, there is a verse expressing th(i)nkfulness.
I wonder how often you do that? Do you take the time to thank your God for the people He has placed in your life, and then express your thankfulness to those people, highlighting the reasons you are thankful?
A Challenge
I wonder if we fully realize how powerful it is to express our thanks not only to God, but also to others?
So I present you, my reader, with a challenge! To whom could you express thanks today?
Maybe you would write out a thoughtful note like Josh did for me. Maybe you could stick post-it notes on a wall like Grace did. Maybe send a text, or email, or an old-fashioned letter with stamps and everything, stating to someone the reasons you are thankful to God for them. You might even get up the courage to speak, to tell someone the reasons you thank God for them.
Just make sure you do SOMETHING today to express thanks to someone. You will encourage someone else and you yourself will receive a blessing for having done it.
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”
A seven year boy went on a walk with his family recently. Rounding a corner he suddenly called out, “Pockets of thankfulness.“
Such an artistic statement grabbed the attention of one family member. “Pockets of thankfulness?” they asked. “Yeah,” he replied, “we have breastplates of righteousness, helmets of salvation … why not pockets of thankfulness?” He was just continuing what he considered to be the logical progression of the armor of God.
Love it!!
Although the writer of Ephesians 6 did not included pockets of thankfulness, the picture seems to fit so perfectly as both a defensive and offensive piece of a Christian’s armor. Thankfulness shields us from temptation, and strikes back at the tempter.
In Isaiah 11:5 the author uses two descriptions of putting on a belt. “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”
In Isaiah 59:17 the Lord God puts on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He puts on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wraps Himself in zeal as a cloak.
In I Thessalonians 5:8 we are exhorted to be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation.
The visual image of a piece of clothing to illustrate a spiritual truth is powerful. Having the direct command of Ephesians 5:20 to give thanks always perhaps gives us grounds to include pockets of thankfulness?
Fill those pockets with things, thoughts, and Scripture that will motivate gratitude!
Pocket Contents
“I’ll just put it in my pocket so I can get it easily.”
Does that sound familiar? A pocket keeps things handy. It is designed to hide things in a place where they can be brought out quickly. I know I often put things quickly in my pocket to have it readily available. Maybe I will need a tissue, or my phone, or some cash?? I will just put it here in my pocket.
Pockets first began appearing on waistcoats and trousers about 500 years ago. As you may remember, about half the population wasn’t wearing trousers back then. In Medieval times, both men and women wore bags that tied around their waists and filled them with whatever bits and bobs they needed.
Unfortunately, many Christians keep thankfulness locked up in a trunk to be opened once a year at Thanksgiving, or on the odd occasion where they are almost killed in an automobile accident or are experiencing cancer in remission. But thankfulness is NOT meant for your locked trunk. It should be in your pockets. Handy. A part of your routine even more than checking social media. Something you can quickly share with a friend. Oh, to have some really big pockets, heh?
What Would Be In Your Pockets?
Maybe the first thing you would put in that pocket would be cash. Seems like you would be so thankful to find some money when reaching into your pocket (even after it’s been through the laundry).
What would you make sure was in your pocket of thankfulness?
If you are a teacher or mother, could I suggest getting a visual of a pocket that you could use in teaching gratitude? Get a big square of blue jean material and sew a pocket on it, then pin it to a bulletin board.
IDEA 1: At the beginning or end of the day, write something you’re thankful for on a piece of paper. Put it in the pocket … for later times when the ingratitude seems to be winning in your life … or maybe for the end of the week when it’s time to count our blessings.
IDEA 2: Ask your children to put in a small object that represents something that they are thankful for and letting them share why that is special to them? The next day you could have a quiz holding up an object from the pocket of thankfulness and ask who remembers what it represented.
IDEA 3: See the inside flyleaf of your Bible as your “pocket.” I have a slip of paper readily available with at least five things that I can think thanks for. I want my eyes to often peruse that paper. We need reminders. We need them often.
Just as a side note ~ that seven year old boy who imagineered “pockets of thankfulness” just happens to be my precious grandson. #thinkful
“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
th(i)nkful 