As we enter the Thanksgiving season, many of us would recount the countless blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us. We recall how the good Lord has provided for us a roof above our heads, food on our tables, family that supports us, and friends that care for us. Yet, beyond these foundational blessings, how often do we forget to thank God in our day-to-day lives? Spurgeon’s encouragement for Christians is not only to occasionally give thanks but to make it our motto. It should be a part of the Christian life. We should say of our Lord, “Let him do what seemeth him good; if he will give us health we will thank him, if he will send us sickness we will thank him. If he indulges us with prosperity or if he tries us with affliction, if the Holy Spirit will but enable us, we will never cease to praise the Lord as long as we live.”[1]
Duty of a Christian
In his sermon on Ephesians 5:20, “Always, and For All Things,” Spurgeon makes it clear that it is the duty and privilege of believers to give thanks. One cannot give thanks to God, who is not yet a follower of God because he does not know God. They might try their best, but they will never know the true object of thanksgiving. To give thanks to God one must first believe there to be a God, and that God is the Author of all good things we receive. We are called to give thanks in all circumstances because all things come from God the Father (Eph 5:20).
Our duty to give thanks makes sense in light of the saving grace we have received. We ought to look back to the day when we were called out from the world into the arms of the Father. To believe in Christ is to be reconciled with God, and we must give thanks for our salvation above all things. A Christian understands that God has not simply forgotten his sin, but He has brought about a full reconciliation. His sins are blotted out. He has experienced the joy of full forgiveness, and he comes to God with a joyful heart for the graces and mercies that he received. Only a true Christian understands this.
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. What are our thanks in the presence of all these priceless favors? Why, if we gave our God a thousand lives, and could spend each one of these in a perpetual martyrdom, it were a small return for what he has bestowed upon us; but to give him thanks is the least we can do, and shall we be slack in that? 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?
Mercies That We Do Not See
It is easy for Christians to give thanks for mercies that are plain in sight: a new job, a loving spouse, a happy home. But how often do we sit back and ponder upon the mercies of God that we do not see? To illustrate this point, Spurgeon told the story of a father and his son.
You have heard, perhaps, of a Puritan who met his son, each one of them travelling some ten or twelve miles to meet the other; and the son said to his father, “Father, I am thankful to God for a very remarkable providence which I have had on my journey here. My horse has stumbled three times with me, and yet I am unhurt.” The Puritan replied, “My dear son, I have to thank God for an equally remarkable providence on my way to you, for my horse did not once stumble all the way.” … Bless God for his unknown benefits; extol him for favors which you do not see, always giving thanks to God for all things.
We see and recognize the blessings which God has bestowed upon us, but we forget the blessings that we already have. Living in an abundant society, our tendency is to overlook the goodness of God in supplying all our physical needs. And yet, everyday, God mercifully provides and preserves our lives.
Bitter Things That We Are Given
When God took everything from Job, he cried out, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Many of us are personally familiar with the story of Job. And yet, there is the need for thanksgiving even in the worst of our circumstances. When we are faced with the bitter providence of God, we find it hard to give thanks. Spurgeon himself confessed that this was hard for him.
We must bless him in success, and also in disaster… It is easy to stand here and tell you this, but I have not always found it easy to practice the duty, this I confess to my shame. When suffering extreme pain some time ago, a brother in Christ said to me, “Have you thanked God for this?” I replied that I desired to be patient, and would be thankful to recover. “Ah, but,” said he, “‘in everything give thanks,’ not after it is over, but while you are still in it, and, perhaps, when you are enabled to give thanks for the severe pain, it will cease.” I believe that there was much force in that good advice.
Spurgeon would reorientate us and help us to see that bitter providence could be a “disguised blessing.” The problem of a bitter providence is never in the issue itself, but in the heart of the believer who is blinded by his circumstances to see the goodness of God in his acts. Just as the servant of Elijah could not recognize the providential hand of God when he first looked towards the sea (1 Kings 18:41-46), we also often fail to see God at work in our pain. But in faith, Christians ought to bring themselves to look beyond their current circumstance to the sovereign goodness of God and give thanks to Him in all circumstances.
So, we can say with Spurgeon, “Let him do what seemeth him good; if he will give us health we will thank him, if he will send us sickness we will thank him. If he indulges us with prosperity or if he tries us with affliction, if the Holy Spirit will buy enable us, we will never cease to praise the Lord as long as we live.” We are to give thanks for all that God has given to us; the good and the bad. Just as how we promise our spouses to love each other “in plenty and in want”, we should vow to give thanks to God in a similar fashion.
Give thanks to God for he is good, and doeth good. Give thanks to God; let not your gratitude stop short of the source from which the streams of mercy come.
Closing
Thanksgiving should not correspond with the feast that we have once a year. It should be our daily sustenance. Thanksgiving is not an optional activity, but it flows from a heart of gratitude towards God for saving us. It should not be circumstantial, where we only give thanks when we receive good from the Lord. Rather, the fire of thanksgiving should warm us through the coldest and darkest winters. And thanksgiving will be our joy for all eternity.
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 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 unto 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.
[1] All quotes are from the sermon “Always, and For All Things,” from MTP Vol. 19.