Being thankful

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

I’d like to tell you about an evil man. His name was Nero Claudius Caesar, and he was the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire. Nero had his mother and first wife put to death, he spent many nights out carousing in the streets of Rome, and he spent so much money on unnecessary building programs that there were many plots on his life, organized by senators and generals alike. This man, who was leader of one of the three largest empires in the world, believed that he was a brilliant actor and insisted that theaters let him have roles in their plays—including playing the part of a pregnant woman. He ignored the stirrings of discontent and civil war within his lands. And worst of all, Nero was responsible for the Roman government’s new policy of persecuting Christians as undesirable citizens.

Why am I telling you about such a despicable man? Because Nero was the emperor at the time when Paul wrote, I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority. Paul was telling his readers to pray and give thanks for the government, when that government was controlled by a human monster. Paul urged support of the very leadership that would order his own death in just a few more years.

Have you ever resented your government? Have you ever felt that the taxes were too high, or that your tax dollars were being spent on the wrong things? Have you ever felt that the president or a member of congress was a crook, and had no business holding office? Have you ever felt that congress passes too many stupid laws, and allows people with power or money to do what they want?

If you have ever felt this way, then Paul’s words may make you feel just as uncomfortable as those same words made Christians feel during Nero’s rule. When the government seems to be going in the wrong direction, when it is making our lives difficult, it seems ridiculous to give God thanks for it. How can Paul tell us to thank God for something that is so imperfect?

The answer comes in the next phrase of the Epistle: that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. Our world is corrupted top to bottom with sin. Every human being is constantly swayed by bad reasoning, impure desires, and reckless impulsiveness. It is no surprise that every government is filled to some extent with corruption—the people who make up the government are corrupt themselves. But think of the alternative—knowing as we do that all people are sinful, and that non-Christians are under the influence of Satan, how much worse would our lives be if there were no government? Imagine if there were no police to protect our churches from vandalism? Imagine if there were no military to protect our communities from terrorist attacks? God instituted governments, not to be perfect, but to try and exert some control over all of us who are imperfect, and to protect us from the worst of each other’s sins. Paul writes, This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. The reason that God gives us government, spoiled though it is by sin, is so that we may have some protection as we live our lives witnessing to others about Jesus, the Son of God who died for all human sins so that we can be forgiven and freed from the domination of our evil impulses. Without government, we would all be holed up in our houses, afraid to go outside and talk to anyone about anything. God’s message of salvation would never find its way out of our homes and into the lives of others.

Being thankful can be very hard. Because of our sinful nature, we tend to look for the evil in things, not the good. Knowing that everyone leans towards selfish, destructive behavior, we are always on the defensive, looking for signs that other people can’t be trusted and worrying that they will hurt us somehow. Because of this, it is much easier to see the evils corrupting a government than it is to see the good that God does through that same government.

What does it take to have a thankful heart in an evil world? First of all, it takes work. We must develop the habit of looking for the good in everything, and not immediately focusing our attention on the bad. In his explanation of the 8th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther said "put the best construction on everything"; the great reformer advises us to always be looking for the good and not to make evil the focus of our attention. When we see the good things that God is doing in the midst of sin, we will be moved to thankfulness.

In fact, it is essential for us to see God as the one responsible for all good in our lives, because when we do not see God, we do not see a reason to be thankful. If I am crossing a street and am narrowly missed being hit by a car, will I be thankful if I don’t see God’s power in saving my life? Of course not—I’ll just say that I was lucky. When we credit good things to "luck" or "being in the right place at the right time", we have no reason to be thankful, because we don’t see the good in our lives as a gift. To be thankful requires looking for evidence of God’s loving activity in our daily lives.

The third thing that is required for having a thankful attitude is acknowledgment of our sins. If we do not think of ourselves as wretched sinners who deserve nothing from God, we will not be thankful. If we think that we are pretty decent people, then we would of course expect God to reward us with good things in our lives, and if we are getting what we deserve, we have no reason to give thanks. But when we look at God’s Law honestly and admit that we continually fail to live up to His holy standards, then every good thing from God is obviously an undeserved gift, and we are properly grateful for them all.

There are benefits to developing an "attitude of gratitude". First of all, such an attitude keeps us happy, because our focus is no longer always on what we don’t have. Instead, we are focused on every good thing in our lives as something special, something that we had no right to expect. Every day becomes a birthday, as God gives us presents—presents of waking up in a bed instead of on the ground, being able to wash up in a heated room with indoor plumbing, having more than one set of clothes in the closet to choose from, finding food in a kitchen instead of having to look for it in garbage cans.

Another benefit of having a thankful heart is that it helps us to be reassured of God’s continual loving presence in our lives. When we develop the habit of looking for God’s hand in every good thing that comes our way, we are amazed at how much He is involved in our lives every day. You will realize that it is God who gave you vision to see the sun in the sky; it is God who gave your body the strength to recover from a nasty cold; it is God who enabled you to say "I’m sorry" and patch up a broken relationship; it is God who made you look up so that you could see a warm smile on a stranger’s face when you were feeling blue.

When we get in the habit of looking for God’s loving presence in our lives, it becomes hard to worry about today—because our lives are filled with proof that God was serious when He said Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). When we can’t figure out how we are going to deal with a problem, we are reminded that God has blessed us every day, and today will be no different. We have the security of knowing that we don’t always have to come up with the solution, because so many times in our lives God gave us something good that it never occurred for us to ask for, something that we never anticipated could make our lives better.

But the most important benefit of cultivating a thankful attitude is that when we live this way, we are not so prone to take God’s good gifts for granted. The greatest gift of God is the gift of His Son Jesus, who was humiliated, beaten, and put to an agonizing death to make settlement for our inborn corruption. Jesus did not deserve to suffer and die; He did nothing wrong. We deserve God’s anger for our greedy hearts that are never satisfied, no matter how many good gifts our Lord showers us with. We deserve God’s punishment for our cold hearts that are so rarely moved to gratitude for God’s presence in our lives. But Jesus loves us, and that love led Him to the agony of the cross so that we could be spared from our "just desserts". Because of Jesus, we can ask for forgiveness with confidence that it will be given. Because of Jesus, we can be sure that God will give us everything that we need to serve Him with our lives. Because of Jesus, we can face death without fear, knowing that because Jesus beat death and lives forever, we too will come back from death to spend forever with Him and every other forgiven Christian.

Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection is God’s greatest gift to us, because it cost Him more than any other gift to give. Dying on the cross, Jesus suffered our hell for us. God the Father watched His only Son suffer this punishment; indeed, the Father was the one who caused His Son to suffer as He laid our punishment on the Righteous One. The Holy Spirit, who had been with Jesus throughout His ministry, was not allowed to ease our Savior’s suffering; the Comforter from God was not permitted to give comfort to the one person who needed it the most. The gift of peace with God was the most expensive gift ever given, and it is a gift that we never dare take for granted. It is only the thankful heart that comes before God every day and honors His love by saying "Thank You for my salvation."

Living in an imperfect world, it can be hard to be thankful. But when you find nothing in your life to be thankful for, ask yourself—has God stopped giving you the blessings of His love, or have you stopped paying attention to them? God’s love is in your life every day—and when you remind yourself to look for it, you will see plenty of reasons to be thankful.