The Will of God is to Give thanks in Every thing

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Th 5:18 

Are we ungrateful? Probably we don’t know. ‘Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults’ cried the psalmist. And probably once in a while we would all benefit immensely from such a prayer. A young rich ruler went to Jesus one day desiring to know what he should do to earn eternal life. He had, according to his testimony, been perfect since childhood. But Jesus told him the truth. And the truth made the rich young ruler very sad. He had a secret fault he hardly knew anything about. And it was that which turned his day into a night suddenly. But truth shouldn’t leave us sad. It should rather leave us enlightened, changed and happy. For it is only then that we can be said to be truly free.

The young rich ruler had a ‘secret fault’ he didn’t know he possessed. And so we too may be pretty ungrateful in our everyday life but we don’t even know it. So what do you see in that brief second of revelation which God sends to us once in a while? And how does it leave you feeling, light or heavy? It came to Peter once. But it made him cry instead, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ The prodigal had been born greedy and ungrateful (like all of us) but he didn’t know it. But thank God the prodigal came to himself, and he chose the way of salvation and not sorrow. He went back to his father and this time he didn’t even want to be called his son – but a servant. Salvation always comes quickly on the heels of true repentance. It is sorrowful yes, but it is a sorrow which leads to salvation. Self-hatred may not always be viewed through negative lenses; it may actually be a prerequisite to a positive change in one’s life, a sort of coming to oneself, or true repentance. Because it wasn’t until the prodigal was truly sorrowful that he saw clearly what a greedy and ingratitude lout he had always been. God help us not to run away from that kind of cleansing sorrow when he sends it our way.

Being thankful is pretty easy when something big has happened, like a sudden windfall. But being thankful in the smallest things of everyday life is rare. It is a secret fault all of us possess, and the sad news is that we hardly know we possess it. The great events are rare. But it is in the smallness of things that life really moves. Let us therefore not despise the day of small things. They build a habit, and a habit builds consistency, and consistency makes the flowers to bloom even in winter. It makes the music sound aloud even in prison. And consistency can make a Spafford to sing ‘It is well with my soul’ even in the midst of the heaviest grief. The redemption story of children of Israel from Egypt was not only about their character but ours as well. God performed clear miracles before their eyes, but they still went ahead to make a god of their own. Their ingratitude killed them, but it is probable they didn’t even see it that way. But of course the cross is the height of our ingratitude. We hanged Christ on it for his tireless effort to save us… But even after a clear demonstration of his resurrection power ‘Who hath believed our report?’

The chief effect of ‘secret faults’ like ingratitude, is that they slow us down in our spiritual progress. We may even recognize them, but we take them lightly because they are small. But the growth of weeds in a farm usually starts small, in one scattered patch or two, and if it is left unchecked one day the farmer will wake up to find his entire crop swallowed and lost to the weeds. And so too ‘secret faults’ have that potential to cause havoc if left unchecked. A holy life can soon get lost to the weeds of the world. The apostle Peter writing on godliness, virtue and divine nature says, ‘But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall’ (2Pet 1:9-10). And we shall never really know ourselves until we first know our God. ‘Search me, O God,’ cried the psalmist, ‘and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting’ (Psa 139:23-24). Because it is only then I can rest comfortably in the knowledge that ‘I am known’.