In I Thessalonians 5:18, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write, “In everything give thanks,” no exceptions, no excuses, nothing outside those parameters. It means in connection with everything that occurs in life. No matter what happens to you in life, no matter what circumstances, no matter what struggle, trial, testing, be thankful. Give thanks. It is a responsibility to which all believers are duty bound. It is a command. Did you know that being unthankful is the primary character of an unregenerate heart?

Unbelievers are described in Romans 1:21 as those who not honor God nor give thanks. They remind me of those 10 lepers in Luke 17 who having been healed, only one returned and gave thanks to Jesus. Thus, the one who gave thanks received not just a physical healing but the salvation of his soul. The other nine lepers are a picture of all unbelievers who receive good from God but render him absolutely no thanks. That is an indictment against all unredeemed man. He refuses to thank God for everything. God, who created everything, God who gives life and breath, God who has revealed himself to all men in their conscience and gave them a standard of right and wrong, God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift, it is that God who the unsaved man refuses to thank. An unbeliever may parrot phrases like ‘thank god for that’. He may in some quasi-religious activity offer a prayer of thanks to a God he does not know, but that does not qualify as true thanks.

On the other hand, we, as believers, are commanded to give God thanks in everything. When you read about the sacrificial system in the O.T. you will discover that they had sin offerings but they also had thank offerings, also called peace offerings. It was a means to celebrate the goodness of God toward those who had a relationship with Him. We don’t have those offerings anymore but we are to be offering thanks to God because we have this vital, living relationship with him. The verse says in everything give thanks. It is the idea of being thankful for everything that comes along in life. It is a very broad command and has no limits or confines. No matter what it might be, give thanks. Everything should precipitate an attitude and an expression of thanks to God. The unsaved man goes through life complaining, being bitter, and being angry. He moves along a path of trying to manipulate the world around him to satisfy the matrix of his own passions, and whenever he can do that he has something to be happy about, whenever he can’t, he is entrenched in bitterness and disappointment. In fact, when one looks at all the unsaved people of the world they could be placed in a few categories: Some of those people think that some things are a matter of luck or a matter of manipulation. It just happened that way and if it doesn’t happen the way it ought to happen for them they become angry and bitter and hostile, So who is there to thank for you can’t thank luck. Others say it is not luck but some nebulous force in charge that preset thinks according to the stars or other aberrations of their own thinking. That is just the way it is, its destiny, can’t argue with that. It is a nameless force, an unidentifiable movement that has no personhood. Who is there to thank in that?

Another category is those who think they can control their own lives. They are the positive thinkers. When successful they attribute it to their own skill set. Anything good that happens to them, they did it, they orchestrated it, they made it happen, they dreamed it, they schemed it and they planned it so all the credit goes to them. Why thank God, what did he have to do with it? Today, there is this foolish philosophy that says you can be anything you want to be, you can do anything you want to do. That isn’t true. All that philosophy does is garrison your mind against fatalism which says if you get what you long for, or the pleasures you chase then you should be thankful but if you don’t then don’t be thankful. The early church made Thanksgiving and essential part of their fellowship. Unfortunately, today Thanksgiving is such an anomaly we have to have a special day to remind us to be thankful. For a Christian, it is to be normal to give thanks. A Spirit-filled life is to be characterized by incessant thanks. A Spirit-filled Christian is a person who cannot be overcome by circumstances or by the disappointment in this world and with this new heart comes the characteristic of thankfulness.

But, we Christians can also fall into the sin of ingratitude, can’t we? Romans 8:28 says that whatever happens to us, it is by God working for our good. It may in itself not seem good, but God will use it for his purposes and our own good. Aren’t we at times even thankful for a surgery that we know will lead to a healing? Are we not thankful even for pain that may be inflicted on our bodies when we exercise because we know in the end it will make us healthier?

II Cor. 4:15 says, All things are for your sakes so that it might abound to the giving of thanks to God. II Cor. 9:11 says, we have been enriched in everything with all liberality which will produce thanksgiving to God. Has not given us more food and clothing and shelter than we need? Should that not engender a spirit of thanksgiving? Eph. 5 says instead of bitterness and anger and slander and greed that we express through our mouth and words, there should be a giving of thanks. So what we are talking about here is a constant attitude of gratitude and a constant expression of thanks.

This is the will of God for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who belong to the Lord. So we know we are to be thankful. We know thankfulness is a characteristic of normal Christians. We know thankfulness is a Christian responsibility. We know the N.T. is filled with passages that speak of thankfulness. So what aren’t we a thankful people? What hinders thankfulness? I can only share with you what the Bible says and what I in my own life has experienced that caused me to have a spirit of unthankfulness. Maybe you can identify with these things also.

Number one is doubt about God. Doubt about the character of God, His love, his wisdom, his word, his changelessness, or his power. You are not thankful because you don’t believe God can overrule the problems you have to bring about his glory and your good. Didn’t God say that all things work together for good? Didn’t God say that his heart and desire for us is good? Didn’t he say he wills his benefits upon us? When he says his faithfulness and mercy are new every morning, do you believe that? Whenever there is ingratitude in your life, no matter what is going on, whenever there is failure to thank God for his purpose unfolding in the situation, whatever it might be, there is a serious sin taking place because to doubt God is to say that you can’t trust what he says about himself.

Number two is selfishness. That is the inability to say, “Nevertheless, your will be done”. Selfishness says I really don’t care what your will is, this is what I want. It says I am not content with the way God is working in my life. It is kind of a God complex that says I want to be God and call the shots. What I want is more important than what God wants, even though we have no clue as to what is best for us. Selfishness says I want to be in charge. I want to run my own life. My plan is more important than your plan. I want my job this way, I want my church this way, I want my spouse this way, I want my child this way, I want my career this way, I want, I want, I want. And when God’s plan doesn’t fit into your plan because of your selfishness, you will never be thankful.

Number three is Worldliness. It is the love of the world. It is getting caught up in the pleasures and people and places and possessions and the pursuit of popularity and prestige that defines human life. God and Christ are not art of your vision because you are too focused on the trivial things of life like pleasure, prominence, popularity, prestige, places, possessions, and pursuits. We get consumed with the things that are going to pass away. When you don’t get that stuff you will never be thankful. Maybe we had our eye on a certain person. Maybe we had our eye on a certain pleasurable achievement. Maybe we had our eye on a certain place we wanted to live. But it didn’t happen and now our whole life is in the dumps. We all know people who didn’t get what they wanted and now spend the rest of their lives complaining. They never see the blessings of God because they are too busy looking at what they did not have instead of what God has blessed them with. David said in Psalm 16, “I have set the Lord always before me, therefore my heart is glad”. As long as I have my focus on Him, as long as I set my affections on things above I am going to be thankful. When I get my eyes on the world and begin to measure my life in terms of what of the world I get or don’t get, my gratitude will disappear.

Number four, a critical spirit will hinder thanksgiving. A critical spirit will steal thankfulness blind. If you are a negative person, if you are a bitter person, if you have a sour attitude in life it will destroy a thankful heart, it will blind your vision, and it will destroy your relationships. It will make you an ugly person to be with and you will become useless to people and useless to God. A critical spirit comes out of the mouth of someone who thinks they deserve better, that they are better than the hand that life has dealt them. It comes from the mouth of someone who has been hurt or wounded by someone else and now takes the pain and tries to spread it around to all they come into contact with. A critical attitude, a judgmental attitude, a condemning attitude corrodes spirituality. I mean, if you don’t have love, the scriptures say you are nothing but a banging gong or a clanging symbol.

Number five, another thing that robs gratitude is impatience. People don’t give thanks when they think God isn’t operating according to their daytime scheduler. That God isn’t working according to their clock. They want everything on their schedule and their timetable. They want instant gratification. They want everything fixed into their time frame. They may see the process and acknowledge God is at work but they demand of God that it be fixed now. They want their spouse to be everything they should be, now. They want their children to be everything they expect them to be, now. They just can’t see the small gains, the slight changes. A critical spirit destroys thankfulness.

Number six, indifference will also kill gratitude. Some of you go to church and that is good but you don’t serve, you don’t give your life away, you don’t spend your life on the kingdom of God. You just fiddle around on things that are trivial and passing. One could call it indifference or apathy. Revelation calls it ‘leaving your first love’. It is a lack of love for others, a lack of commitment to study the scriptures, a lack of passion to worship. Indifference can be seen in lack of passion for service, lack of diligence in study of the scriptures or lack of passion in worship. And it leaves people cold and indifferent and consequently there is no room in their heart for thanksgiving.

A final hindrance to thanksgiving is rebellion. You just don’t like your lot in life. You are just plain angry with God at the ways things are going. I’m mad and I know it but I am not going to change. All those hindrances are sin because they all defy the spirits command to be thankful. We must learn that even when things look bad, they are not outside the plan of God and God will use them to perfect your life. Are you a thankful people? Do you have a spirit of gratitude? When you thank God consistently, faithfully, constantly in every situation, you are manifesting a Spirit-controlled life. God will be glorified and you will be blessed, the church will be built up and the lost will be reached. There is nothing more wonderful than to maintain a grateful attitude so that people can see that God has transformed your life. When one thinks about it, it is all a matter of perspective. It is a choice one makes on the basis of what they believe. Dr. Alexander White was a famous preacher and was about to preach a Thanksgiving message. Thanksgiving Day was a cold, wet, ugly day and upon arrival at the church he noted that half the congregation had stayed home. Dr. White rose to the pulpit, lowered his head and prayed, “We thank ye God, that it is not always like this”. Matthew Henry, a famous scholar was robbed by a thief one day and he wrote these words in his diary, “God let me be thankful that I have never been robbed before. Let me be thankful that though he took my purse he did not take my life. Let me be thankful that though he took my purse there was not much in it. Let me be thankful that though I was robbed, it was not I that robbed.” What is the primary reason we should have unceasing gratitude, because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.