Thanksgiving By Lessons In The Furnace Of Life

I Googled this question this morning and thought about it as I drove around today:
How many times is the word “thanksgiving” mentioned in the Bible?

That all depends on the Bible translation being used. Here are some answers
Version                                 Number of times
King James Version               30
New International Version   32
New English Translation       29
English Standard Version     38
New Living Translation        31

Yes, I took the lazy man's way of getting to the answer. Thank you Rob J Hyndman for your answer. Why did I ask this question? This will be my third Thanksgiving alone. Through my own fault in many ways but still you ask yourself. "what do I do with me during this time? Why does it hurt so much? The answer to the pain of lonesomeness is simple, but not simple to arrive at. Give thanks to God for all things and in all things!

As I drove(I put on 160 miles total just driving today) I thought of all the events of my life that I could give thanks for. I thought of all the events I didn't give God thanks for...at least at first! I also thought of all the times I was alone at Thanksgiving and Christmas and the reasons why. Many times after a hard time or a trial I think of that POGO cartoon saying, we have found the enemy and he is US!

It is easy to be thankful for the good in life. Food, plentiful water, family, shelter, a roof over our head, in other words all the traditional answers to the “What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?” question people ask at the dinner table. Being thankful for happy things, is normal. It is a start when beginning a journey to be thankful in all things.

However, the Bible tells us not to stop there:


“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~ 1 Thess. 5:16-18
Giving thanks isn’t a suggestion; it isn’t a nice thought, neither is it something we can do when we feel like it. It’s a command. If we’re really going to follow the command to “be thankful in all circumstances.” We have to learn how to be thankful for the bad, the terrible,  and the sad things in life, even if we caused them or were just slammed against the wall of life unsuspecting bad things were coming our way! Jesus when he was about to face one of the cruelest deaths, the long, slow, agonizing death on the cross broke bread with the disciples the night before his death:

“And he took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’.” ~ Luke 22:19

 
Think about it, Jesus is fully God he wasn't just a man.  He knew what was about to happen to him. After he ate this last meal with his disciples, Jesus was betrayed by one he called a disciple-a friend. His betrayer gave him over to the Jewish leaders, who manipulated the crowds and convinced Pilate to permit Jesus to be crucified.

Jesus knew all of that was going to happen, yet he still gave thanks over the breaking of bread, knowing that in a few hours he himself would be broken.Unlike Jesus, we don’t know what our future will hold on this earth, but we know what the future holds after this life! However, are we living a life full of thanks right now? Are we thankful during the happy times and the painful times?
Psalm 56:8 declares that “You [God] have kept count of my tossings and turnings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”

God holds all of our tears in a bottle. Isn’t that beautiful imagery? For some of us that bottle has got to be gigantic!

As woman cries over the fact that she discovers she married a cruel partner who causes her emotional pain and even physical pain in order to dominant the woman he was supposed to cherish. The Lord collects her tears in a bottle and remembers why...

As the young girl cries over the loss of her mother in gang shootout, God extends his hand and catches her streaming tears in a glass bottle.

As the girl cries when she loses a boy she falls in love with, God places her tears in a bottle.

As the father and mother mourn the loss of son in battle, God captures his hidden tears in a bottle.

As the woman cries when she finds out she has cancer, God collects her tears of pain in a bottle. She laments that possibly she will miss out on all that is motherly, womanly, and loving to friends and family.

As the tiny boy cries when his dog is hit and killed or has run away, God holds his tears in a bottle.


I am not trying to start a theological discussion on whether or not God uses a real bottle to collect our tears. The point is HE KNOWS EVERY TEAR WE SHED. WHAT IS YOUR LOSS TODAY, I WONDER? GOD IS THERE IF YOU WILL TURN TO HIM!

Yes, God is with us through our pain, especially in feeling alone in our pain. He’s there each step of the way, catching our trickling tears in bottles and keeping track of them in a book. Because we live in a fallen world, pain is going to happen. However, it’s reassuring to know that we’re not experiencing this pain alone. GOD KNOWS!

Pain’s still hard, though; which brings back to that very crucial question:
How do we give thanks, even in the hard times?

I struggle with this too! In Bible college I read a book by Colonel Merlin Carothers, called Prison to Praise. Now Merlin really ticked me off because he had the audacity to tell me I need to praise God for all things including pain and anguish! I quickly reversed this and told others that we need to praise God not FOR all things but IN all things. Well, the Lord doesn't discriminate. He wants us to praise him for every circumstance no matter how terrible it might seem. Why? How can you praise God for the death of a loved one? The blessing comes in the praise for His ultimate will to be done. You may read his story here:
https://merlincarothers.remembered.com/
 
I know pain. Yet, I have hope. Yet still I have doubts when trouble comes but Jesus gives me and you reassurance...
John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

How can get to this place in my heart, you ask? 

My hope is found in the saving grace of Jesus Christ and my trust that he has a plan for everything. Therefore, I do not despair when things go dreadfully wrong. (Well, truthfully, sometimes I despair, but that’s when my eyes are fixed on the situation and not on the Savior.)  There is a song that says "my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' Name."

If we look at the long version of this question we see that God promised the following to the nation of Israel before the Babylonians cast them into captivity. Did you just read this right? ...just before casting them into CAPTIVITY!

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you…'” ~Jeremiah 29:11-14aJeremiah also wrote, “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down with in me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” ~Lamentations 3:20-23 God's people have suffered many hardships and even captivity, the Lord has delievered them out of the hand of the enemy.

In John 16:33 (one of my favorite verses), Jesus reassures his disciples by saying, “I have told you these things so that in me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble; but take heart! I have overcome the world.” Did you read that? "IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE!!! BUT TAKE HEART I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!"

The apostle Paul wrote the following in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

    “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh…Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

    “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’

    “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

But even though I have hope, it’s still a struggle to give thanks for the hard circumstances.
I could go on and on about hope, but for the sake of time, I’ll just link more verses so you can look them up if you’d like.

So Ted are you really saying give thanks to God for all the PAIN I'm enduring?

Basically, in this story Jesus was invited to a pharisee’s house. A sinful woman came and worshiped him by breaking an expensive flask of ointment and washing his feet with  her tears and wiping them with her hair.The pharisee was disgusted. Jesus addressed him by telling a story. A moneylender had two people who were in his debt. One owed five hundred dollars, and the other only owed fifty dollars. Neither of them could pay the debt, so the moneylender canceled both of their debts. Here comes the big question: which of the two debtors will love the moneylender more? The pharisee answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

Jesus told him that he had answered correctly. He then tied his story to the sinful woman, who had displayed grand affection toward Jesus. He declared, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven-for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Those who most know forgiveness most know gratitude. Gratitude springs from a forgiven heart. 

Everything that befalls a Christian or non-Christian has a purpose, usually get us to recognize that bad things happen to good people but more importantly to realize that like Matthew 5:45 says the rain falls on the just and the unjust! Many times hardship causes us to consider looking to God for an answer.

There is a promise hidden for those who love God and trust Him even in the darkest circumstances. Jesus promises not leave us as orphans:


^{John 14:15} “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[c] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Here are some quotes by Charles Spurgeon one of the great 19th century theologians:

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace of affliction, He will be with them in it.

It seems to me that doubt is worse than trial. I had sooner suffer any affliction than be left to question the gospel or my own interest in it.     Source: Sermons, 29.79.

Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them.

Providence is wonderfully intricate. Ah! You want always to see through Providence, do you not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a little time; but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by trusting Him.     Source: God's Providence, p. 19.

The furnace of affliction is a good place for you, Christian; it benefits you; it helps you to become more like Christ, and it is fitting you for heaven.

Christian are you going through the furnace of life..give thanks! For out of that furnace will come purity and faith! For those of you who don't know Jesus Christ as a Savior, turn to Him and confess that you are in need of a Savior. Confess openly that you have failed those trials, He will wipe away each tear and replace it with peace at knowing your eternal destiny. There no sin too great that God will not forgive except the sin of unbelief. Ask and receive.