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Another thankfulness challenge

Lynne Baab • Wednesday December 2 2015

Another thankfulness challenge

On the morning after Thanksgiving, my husband Dave said to me, “I found the most amazing passage. It really helps explain why thankfulness matters.”

Here’s the passage, Deuteronomy 8:11-18:

Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

After Dave read it to me, he said, “Part of what thankfulness does is exactly what is described here. It helps remind us that everything good we have came to us as a gift from God. Thankfulness helps us avoid boasting about our own prowess, exalting ourselves. It helps us remember God.”

I wrote last week about a thankfulness challenge. I got some interesting responses on Facebook. My friend Steve wrote,

Really good point about how prayers of thanksgiving help us keep God in the center. It’s so easy to think that the sole reason God exists is to do good things for us! Pretty crazy when it's put like that, but if we’re honest, that's the way we act and talk much of the time.

My friend Margui wrote,

What struck me in your blog was that our prayers of Thanksgiving remind us of what we have versus what we do not have. This is such a powerful act for our spiritual and emotional health.

So, to summarize Dave, Steve and Margui’s comments, here are some profound reasons why thankfulness matters:

1. It keeps us from exalting ourselves.
2. It helps us remember that everything good in our lives comes from God.
3. It helps us keep God at the center.
4. It helps us focus on what we have rather than what we don’t have.

These ideas are intimately connected with each other. If I’m not going to exalt myself, I have space to be able to exalt God, which helps keep God at the center. If I remember that God give me all the good things in my life, then it’s easier to keep God at the center. But if I’m not going to exalt myself for my competence and achievements, I might shift my focus onto what I’m lacking in my life rather than what I have. Thankfulness keeps the focus on what I have rather than what I don’t have, but I remember it all comes from God.

I am convinced that the consistent practice of thankfulness is one of the most important spiritual practices we can engage in. It shapes our heart in so many good ways. My thankfulness challenge for you this week is to identify the areas of your life where you might sometimes get cocky about your own competence, prowess and achievements. In that area, spend some time daily for the next week thanking God for the blessings you have received.

(The illustration is a watercolor by Dave Baab, and the telescope is a good image to remind us that thankfulness helps us see God at work in our lives. If you'd like to receive an email alert when I post on this blog, sign up under "subscribe" in the right hand column.)



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