I was trying to decide if I should accept an invitation to join a Christian work in Boston, or go north to Canada. Some of my fellow students had decided to go to Canada where they could sit out the Vietnam War period free from the arm of the American Military machine. I had just finished and had graduated from a three month intensive missionary training course in Ellenville, upstate New York in February 1972. I had been awarded with the certificate of Ministry Training and Evangelism and was ready to put all I had learned into practise. However, decision making was not my greatest quality.
My friend Jebaz, who had graduated with me and knew the struggle I was having, came up to me and said, “Dennis, Do you want to know what the will of God is for you?” Puzzled, I answered, “Sure.” My friend, with a screwd smile on his face, said, “Look up 1st Thessalonians 5:18.” I opened my pocket sized New Testament used when witnessing and found in black and white the verse that has stayed with me ever since. “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Even though I had a serious problem with the military, as I had refused to submit to the pre-induction military examinations and later had refused to appear for induction, I decided not to go to Canada, but to remain in America and accept the position being offered me in Boston. However, the verse that Jebaz shared with me, along with Romans 8:28 which says, “All things work together for good to them that love God to them that have been called according to His purpose,” have been key principles or attitudes that have helped me to face the difficulties of life. Being thankful in all things is a lesson that I have been recently relearning which I wanted to share with you.
For different reasons, I had stopped being thankful in all things, even though I hadn’t noticed it. God's word says, "Be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."[1] We are often oblivious to our own failings, while we are quick to notice the failings of others. The association I had been working in for twelve years just didn’t seem to be going in the direction I felt it should. My wife was also tired of much of the fund-raising work. We also felt we didn’t have much voice in the decision making of the association. We had lost respect for our fellow workers in the association and only saw the problems and not the benefits. But the Lord has a way to point our own problems out to us, if we are attentive to His voice.
The first place where I started to hear His sweet soft voice speaking to me about “thankfulness in all things” was a testimony I read from a blind Christian writer. He was sharing his personal testimony and how he had fell into depression over two failed relationships. He finished up with how the Lord had showed him the importance of giving thanks in all things and quoted, “In everything give thanks for this the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” In another article by a different author the main lessons was from Philippians 4:4-7.
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful (or anxious) for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
“Are you giving thanks in everything, Dennis?” The voice of conscience, the Lord’s voice questioned me. I started noticing that when my wife and I ended up talking about the association, we would usually end on a wrong note, criticizing our friends who lead the organization. I noticed we weren’t giving thanks and mentioned it to my wife that we had better be careful with our words. It seemed an evil root of bitterness was springing up. God’s word specifically states to not let an evil root of bitterness spring up. We had experienced the same problem some years before in another similar situation and had learned to not talk negatively among ourselves about the problem, but to bring it to the Lord in prayer instead. We decided to do that.
A few days later, I watched an Anchor post by Steven Furtick on YouTube, even though he’s not my style of preacher. But again, the Lord used him to speak to me. Furtick mentions how the children of Israel were murmuring when they were down in Egypt. Yet, when they got their freedom and escaped on their journey to the promised land, the were still murmuring. They murmured in the situation they had been in Egypt. When they got free from that situation, they murmured about the new situation. My wife and I were murmuring about the situation that we were in. Yet, how were we to know that a future situation would be any better? I said to my wife, “We are not happy with the situation in the association, but how do we know if a new situation will be any better. It may very well be worse.”
The next thing that happened was a new friend we have made through the association, who is a professor at a local university, asked me to prepare a presentation about the association and how it formed. I agreed and thought I would have time to work on it. I thought I would start off with my life story and end up with the association. I tried to work on the powerpoint but ended up getting nowhere. Then the professor moved up the date for the presentation by a week. Suddenly, I was stressed and every time I would try to sit down to prepare the presentation, I would end up with a headache and accomplish zero.
Then the Lord spoke to me. “Remember what the professor asked you to do? The presentation is not about you, it’s about the association. Forget about presenting yourself and present the association.” I remembered what a friend of mine had shared with me, she said, “Dennis, I like your classes, but I kind of feel it’s more about what you want to share with your students, than really what the students need.” I had once gotten a failing note in speech class because I had not followed the professor’s directions and corrections, but had done it my way. It seemed like I was doing the same thing again. I decided to forsake my story and concentrate on presenting the association in the presentation to the class.
In the process, I had to review all the beautiful and extra-ordinary activities we as an association had done together. We had gone to Bosnia with humanitarian aid with nine cars and two vans and had received an award from the local government. We had organized a trip to Mozambique and distributed humanitarian aid there. We had gone twice to the Saharawi refuge camps in south west Algeria participating in cultural programs in the schools and delivering humanitarian aid. We had faithfully given 200 free hot-meals to the homeless once a week for twelve years in the largest city in our country.
We had organized charity events to give food and clothing to poor families in the poorest metropolitan areas. We had helped fellow association members in Angola with the project they have with the poor children of their neighborhood. Some 200 children received a meal daily during the pandemic while close to 50 had been attending our after school activities which included an evening meal for over a year before the pandemic hit. We still are distributing food baskets weekly to lower income families and helping innner city soup kitchens with fresh vegetables and fish in our home country.
How could I have been murmuring about all that? The enemy gets our minds on the little details, on the negative things, and we lose sight of all the good that has been accomplished through our working together. Yes, working together is difficult, but if we apply 1st Thessalonians 5:18 to those difficult situations, we can find that maybe things aren’t as bad as we may think.
When the Lord wants you to get the point, He brings it to you in many different ways, so you won’t miss it. Yesterday, I sat down to read from the YouVersion Bible App. I wanted to show a friend how she could find small Bible reading plans in the app. Lo and behold, when I looked for a plan, what plan did I find? None other than, How to Be Grateful for Your Life. I read to my friend the first two days of the devotional with the assigned verses and she was overjoyed. I had just finished sharing her the bulk of this writing before opening up the app. We laughed how God had such a sense of humor to bring to me once more the importance of being thankful, a lesson she needed to remember likewise.
Maybe we all need the reminder to walk in thanksgiving. We can find a multiple verses in the Bible on the topic of giving thanks. The Book of Psalms, the longest book in the Bible, is essentially a book of thanksgiving, songs of thankfulness. Apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, encouraged the believers that they should be, “Speaking to themselves in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[2]
To the Colossians he says the same thing. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body: and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”[3]
Here are a few verses from the Psalms on thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
2 Comments:
Ty for your honesty and story. It’s just what I needed. The situation over the past few years has heightened my stress and I often feel—what shld I do…?? I recently was in a car accident and I vowed to make more time for Him and learn from what had happened. So now taking more time with my Saviour has opened my eyes to habits I’ve let build up over the years, some of which I need to shed and the Word and His Voice are guiding me.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. How true! TY!
Dear friend, Glad it was a help. You can write me at dennismedwards@gmail.com
God bless you as you keep on going for Jesus!
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