Sacrifice of Thanksgiving: Not Really Optional
Being in maintenance treatment with no active cancer is such a sweet reprieve, it means I only have to take a drive to Seattle every other week to get one medication that acts as a tumor suppressor and the side effects are minimal! I would be lying though if I said I didn’t have daily aches and pains, but It’s not terrible compared to being in active treatment. I just also need to acknowledge that this dull ache is there, or when I’m wondering why I’m not getting more done, or why my mood is not better.
Being the human that I am, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, with the joy of being in remission, I can feel the gratitude of healing wear off far too quickly! You would think every morning when I open my eyes I would naturally be filled with overwhelming excitement and joy just to be alive, right?! -Wrong. My contentment wears off rapidly, it turns out I must make a concerted effort to choose joy and thankfulness – daily.
The Cost of Thanksgiving
Prayer night last week, as usual, was therapy for my ever-fickle ungrateful heart. One of my favorite people ever (Lori Anderson) came to prayer night with her girls for the first time and it really blessed my ever-lovin-cotton-socks-off!
Lori read some passages from Psalms and really drove home a point in her prayer that has stuck we me all week:
Psalms 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and perform your vows to the Most High,
15 and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”
A sacrifice... of thanksgiving. What does that mean, to show thanksgiving in that way? Sacrifice means it costs something.
The things I have to complain about are real. My body aches and pains from drugs that are keeping cancer gone are real. Your hurt, your pain, your struggle, your ____, are real. This is why it’s a sacrifice, because the reality of this world for most of us is hurt and pain on all sides. God is validating through the Psalmist, that thanksgiving can often be a sacrifice, when our circumstances do not naturally produce it.
When I looked up the phrase “Sacrifice of praise” in scripture, it occurs more than 100 times! Here’s just one example:
Psalms 107:21-22 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!
Let them thank the Lord and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. Again, thanksgiving here is a physical act of sacrifice, of the loss of something to gain something else. When the subjects of this psalm recognized the steadfast love of the Lord, the direction given was to give thanks through sacrifice.
Thanksgiving is the Will of God
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you
My bestie friend Katie Jean just spoke at our church’s annual women's conference a few weeks ago and I absolutely loved her message “How to know the will of God”. She pointed out that there are only THREE places in scripture where the phrase “THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD” is used. So, you better believe we should put on our listening ears when we get to those passages! The passage above is one of them. God’s will for me, for you, for erry’body, is for us to “Give thanks in all circumstances”. This is our sacrifice!
If I kept a journal of all the negative complain-y thoughts that pass between my ears in a single day, you’d probably laugh and shake your head at me. (Again, struggle bus: party of one) All this to say, as humbling as this is to admit, I’m the perfect candidate for God’s redeeming power to shine all the brighter! I’m excited to change my pattern of thinking, as an intentional sacrifice to God...as a living out of this revealing of His will for me: Give thanks in all circumstances.
Knowing You, Jesus
This theme of offering a sacrifice of praise is throughout scripture, and it’s a way of expressing love for God. Though trial and hardship are real, as I have dwelt on these verses this week, God’s been gracious in revealing the love my heart and mind have for complaining (opposite of thankfulness). I am thankful for God’s patience in ever-teaching me to be different, and he’s growing my thankfulness towards even just the fact that I have anything to offer him as my Holy, Loving, heavenly father. The words to the song Knowing You Jesus by Grahm Kenndrick, come to mind:
“Now my heart's desire is to know You more
To be found in You and known as Yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All-surpassing gift of righteousness
… Knowing You, Jesus
Knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord”
The truth of who God is and what he’s done for me should spill over into praise and sacrifice of thanksgiving, even when all is not actually how I would have it be if I were authoring the story.
During our prayer night, Lori put it this way:
“It IS a sacrifice! It is our default to grumble. It’s sooo hard to be thankful in ALL things. But this is the sacrifice God requires of us now”
Now. Right now. My theme for the week and the goal of my striving has been my high calling, the mantra of the day in and day out. Give thanks in ALL things.