Giving Thanks, a Christmas Adventure – Day Five

To practice Living Thanksgiving, we’ll have to give up the idea that God owes us something more and learn how to accept whatever comes from His hand. But, Shellie, someone would say,

Hebrew 11:6 says we are called to believe that He rewards those who seek Him! That is true.  Our problem comes when we lose sight of the fact that His response to us is all grace. God is obligated to no man. I will never live in the sustaining fellowship that is eucharisteō if I see God as obligated to me.

Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will return there. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Job:1.21 Job spoke those words out of some serious grief. But, that’s not the whole story of how Job reacted to his troubles. He also tore his clothes, shaved his head, covered himself in dirt and fell on his face crying. (Try that response at church and see what happens!)

And yet, in all of that, the Holy Spirit testified that Job, “did not sin, nor blame God.” God was okay with that kind of drama? That’s hard for us to understand but it’s a vital part of understanding how to live eucharisteō.  I believe the Holy Spirit testified that Job was blameless in his response precisely because Job acknowledged God in his pain and in his grief, and bowed low, conceding that his life, his possessions, his children, everything that seemed to be his, was truly God’s, to do with as He pleased. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21

If I have to grab my flesh by the neck and haul myself up a thousand times a day to get that message and to live the moments of this life in gratitude, so be it. For the dark trap of “I don’t deserve this, or I deserve more” is ingratitude, the evil opposite of Living Thanksgiving, and it’s always rooted in acknowledging me. Gratitude says, “I haven’t earned this, but thank you.” Ingratitude says, “Is this all? I deserve more, I want more; I will stretch out my hand and get more for myself.” It is the ongoing challenge of our lives.

To whatever extent the devil is successful at planting the rebellious seed of ingratitude in our thoughts, we’ll spend that moment, or that day, or our entire lives, trying to satisfy what we’ve been convinced we deserve and must have, driven by our own insatiable lusts. If he is successful in the moment, we’ll give to the moment’s frustration and refuse to yield our soul’s chaos to the only One who can order it whole and bring peace. If he is successful in the day, we’ll squander the day. If he is successful in the week, we’ll squander the week, in our lives…we’ll squander our lives…

When I cling to an ungrateful thought, when I acknowledge me, and demand my right to stay there in that thought, I forfeit the opportunity to consecrate the moment by offering it up to the Lord. I give up divine fellowship and the power of what Christ wants to do in the situation, all to fellowship with my thought, my issue. I’m reminded of the rebellious man God promises to hold accountable in Deuteronomy 29.1, the one who foolishly said, “I shall peace even though I follow the dictates of my own heart.”

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