Although my family didn’t attend church while I was growing up, we did have one tradition that echoed our protestant heritage. Every Sunday dinner, we said grace. It was a prayer that many of you will recognize: “For what we’re about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful”. In my young mind, I thought that somehow, reciting these words – hands folded, eyes closed – was a necessary accompaniment to roast beef and yorkshire pudding. It was a special meal, true enough, and we ate it at the dining room table instead of in the kitchen, using the good china and silverware. It never crossed my mind to consider why we didn’t ask God to make us truly thankful for dinner the rest of the week.
Now that I’ve grown up and have had the life-altering experience of falling in love with Jesus, these early memories are especially precious to me. I love to imagine that although I had no real idea what I was praying or to whom, God was smiling down on the scene in our dining room each Sunday. He knew that one day I would know Him well. He knew that as I surrendered my life to Him, I would be thankful in ways that would’ve been incomprehensible to me not long ago.
If you think about the words of that prayer, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. It’s easy to say, “for what we’re about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful” when you’re anticipating something good, delicious or desirable. But can we pray the same words when what we’re about to receive is unclear or frightening? We think we know what will happen tomorrow – we make plans, expect certain things to happen in a certain way. When things don’t go as we had hoped, it can be pretty unsettling. We may even feel annoyed with God. “Lord, don’t You love me? Then why don’t You (fill in the blank)?” Can we trust Him enough to surrender our plans, fears and doubts, and let Him use the hard, barren seasons of life to change us? Can we accept the words of Romans 8:28, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose”, when the things He is working in and through are deeply painful?
Maybe the issue here is really about control. Who is in control in my life? Am I ‘god’, or is God in charge? Do I trust Him to order my steps, not just in words, but in how I react when I don’t get my own way, when I don’t understand what’s happening and I wonder where He is? Our life on earth is a tiny blip on the radar screen of eternity. This is where we learn to trust God, to love and give and serve with gratitude for the life He has given us. It’s the training ground for our real life, which begins after we die.
Lord, make us truly thankful in every circumstance. Help us to understand the inexpressible magnitude of Your love for us, a love that always has our best interests at heart. That doesn’t mean our lives will be free of pain and suffering. What it does mean is that You will be with us in every trial, every dark hour, and that You really do work all things for the good of those who love You and are called according to Your purpose – Your purpose, not ours. As much as we might like to think that His purpose revolves around our comfort and well being, God’s perspective is quite different. He sees the big picture in a way we can’t possibly comprehend. He is much more concerned with our growth and transformation than He is with giving us everything we want in this life.
Have you recently received something in your life that is unwelcome – bad news, sickness, the loss of a job, a broken relationship? One of the keys to getting through life’s hard times is to keep your focus on God. A favourite scripture of mine is Hebrews 12:2 – “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was in very nature God, but He humbled himself, coming to earth as a human being. He understands our weakness; the Bible describes Him as “a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering”. As He approached Calvary, the scriptures say, “and being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly…Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42,44)
Jesus knew that His submission to God’s will was necessary to fulfill a larger plan. If you find yourself in a dark valley, facing a cup you don’t want to drink, pray for deliverance, but even more, pray for endurance. God will carry us through life’s valleys if we continue to trust in His goodness. When we view challenging circumstances this way, we can find real comfort in the words Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
