Thinking about Thanks.

Thinking about Thanks.

Theodore Zachariades.

It is the time of the year when we all reflect on how grateful we are. Or, at least, most of us do! It is a welcome break for those who get time off from their busy work places. Indeed, much thanksgiving has already been rendered to the Almighty for such trivial blessings. But what of deeper matters? How about the difficulties and the trying times that rattle our nerves and rake our souls over the fires?

The answer from the Bible is that it is always appropriate for an attitude of gratitude. Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians during a time of trial, could encourage them to be thankful in all things!

Often, one may hear a clever distinction from the pulpit showing that Paul meant, not that we should thank God for all things, but that we should be thankful in the midst of all things. Is there a difference and is this what Paul meant? Well, to answer the first question, we must affirm that, yes, there is a difference. To answer the second we must pause and reflect a little more.

The first thing to note is that the perspective that would have you be thankful, not for everything, but in everything must of necessity distinguish events or circumstances between those that merit thanksgiving and those that do not. Then, one must offer thanks in the midst of those undesirable situations [those not meriting thanksgiving], but for other things. This is where the problem lies.

Underlying such an attitude is the notion that God is somehow not in control of the universe, or else, we must distinguish from what he “allows or permits,” from what He really would prefer that we experience. These strategies for assessing life are doomed to failure as they reflect, not the God of Scripture, but our fanciful and wishful thinking. God is sovereign over every aspect of life. So, it is useless to try and affirm, as so many do, that God “allows” certain realities to exist that, in reality, He would rather that they didn’t. It is those “allowed” circumstances that we cannot or should not be thankful for, but we also must resolutely be thankful in, no doubt. Where is the scribe or the wise man that is able to discern such? This in essence would require an infinite mind, indeed one superior to the Almighty’s as He has decreed to “permit” or “allow” in this perceived schema.

But the truth is that God decrees whatsoever comes to pass, and to speak of bald permission is tantamount to denying God’s absolute control. Calvin helps in this regard. For the truly curious and careful, I would encourage you to read the extended discussion by Calvin on God’s providence in Institutes of the Christian Religion Book I, Chapters 16-18. This is a masterful presentation of sound scriptural argument. It is irrefutable!

Calvin says,

“Hence a distinction has been invented between doing and permitting because to many it seemed altogether inexplicable how Satan and all the wicked are so under the hand and authority of God, that he directs their malice to whatever end he pleases, and employs their iniquities to execute his judgments. The modesty of those who are thus alarmed at the appearance of absurdity might perhaps be excused, did they not endeavor to vindicate the justice of God from every semblance of stigma by defending an untruth. It seems absurd that man should be blinded by the will and command of God, and yet be forthwith punished for his blindness. Hence, recourse is had to the evasion that this is done only by the permission, and not also by the will of God” (Institutes I.XVIII.1).

Then he cites several examples from the Bible. Finally, in this particular section, he ends with this reminder:

“Often in sacred history whatever happens is said to proceed from the Lord, as the revolt of the ten tribes, the death of Eli’s sons, and very many others of a similar description. Those who have a tolerable acquaintance with the Scriptures see that, with a view to brevity, I am only producing a few out of many passages, from which it is perfectly clear that it is the merest trifling to substitute a bare permission for the providence of God, as if he sat in a watch-tower waiting for fortuitous events, his judgments meanwhile depending on the will of man” (Institutes I.XVIII.1).

What Calvin demonstrates is that the appeal to a “bare permission” to God in a sense that would as a corollary exempt us from thanksgiving in some instances is seen to be a subterfuge. Indeed, God directs the heart of the king, and the Reformer accedes that this must include all of humanity. Nations rise and fall at God’s bidding. All things are from Him and through Him and for Him. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His will.

So in the grand schema, God as all-over sovereign directs things as He determines. As all things are designed for his children to conform them to Christ, there is never a place or circumstance or matter for which we should not thank God.

Some years ago a young Rachael Lampa had a song in which the following is included as a chorus:

I am blessed, I am blessed

From when I rise up in the morning

Till I lay my head to rest, I feel You near me

You soothe me when I’m weary

Oh, Lord, for all the worst and all the best

I am blessed

Blessed, Rachael Lampa (emphasis added).

This attitude is found in more classical Christian hymns:

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,

Nor ever murmur nor repine;

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since ’tis my God that leadeth me

He Leadeth Me, Joseph H. Gilmore (emphasis added).

So let us not use an artificial distinction that may very well be an untruth, as Calvin puts it. Rather, let us truly give thanks in all things and for all things, for God is truly sovereign.