The Thanksgiving holiday is upon us once again and our thoughts turn to family, friends, food, and football. All are good things in their proper place. But as Christ-followers, we certainly should turn our thoughts toward God and express gratitude to Him for His multitudinous grace to us in so many ways! While we can enjoy the more secular aspects of the holiday, we should surely turn to Jesus, the object of our faith, and take time to express to God, and to one another, our profound thankfulness for His unending goodness in who He is and what He has done.

Bad Advice

Unfortunately, in the world of evangelicalism the celebrity preachers and musicians that we have created are prone to give advice that is at best weak and foolish and at worst downright unbiblical. For example, I stumbled across a station playing contemporary Christian music (CCM) and heard the radio presenter quote a well-known and popular CCM artist giving her thoughts on thankfulness. She recognized that at this time of year many people are weighed down with worry and anxiety. Her solution was to stop and think of all the good that God has done for you and thereby overcome your anxiety. If only it were that easy.

On a separate occasion I heard another “Christian” celebrity teacher, again well-known among evangelicals, give her opinion on thanks. She first quoted First Thessalonians 5:18, which says, “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Then she incorrectly opined that we are to give thanks in everything but not for everything. I would suggest that theology and biblical exposition were not her areas of expertise. This celebrity teacher should have continued reading her Bible, and might have come across Ephesians 5:20, which says, “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (emphasis mine). 

While there is some truth to what both celebrities said their advice fell far short of sound biblical instruction. We are to give thanks to God for the good, but also for the bad! We are to give thanks in everything, but we are also to give thanks for everything. While this can clearly be a difficult task at times, it is no less the command of Holy God for its difficulty.

The Sin of Anxiety

Let us clarify that the problem with anxiety is that it is a sin. It reflects a mindset that has failed to place its wholehearted trust in God. Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” The context of Matthew 6:25-34 would suggest that worry is a failure to trust God. The Lord’s command is, “Do not worry.”

I would surmise that the first step in overcoming anxiety is to confess that it is sin and then to repent, placing one’s full trust in the Lord’s goodness and grace. Jesus gives the antidote to the problem of worry, “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” You cannot seek God’s kingdom and righteousness with a heart filled with anxiety.

The Apostle Paul also weighs in on the issue, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). Again, we have a command. Anxiety is a sin. Instead of worrying we should take our troubles and trials to God and leave them there (cf. 1 Pet. 5:7). According to Paul this is the pathway to peace! “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

The Right Approach to Thanks, the Principle of Praise

I have long believed that the ultimate key to overcoming anxiety is learning the principle of praise. In the glorious providence of God my ministry came under the preaching and influence of an evangelist by the name of Dr. Sam Cathey. “Papa Sam,” as many of us knew him, became a mentor to me. His grasp of scriptural principles was nothing short of amazing. It was from him that I learned this principle of praise: Giving God thanks for everything that happens in your life, whether good, bad, or indifferent from the human point of view. Praise of this kind takes the problems out of your hands and places them in the hands of God.

Such praise is not always easy. Life does throw us exceedingly difficult circumstances on occasion. But we are on solid scriptural ground when thank God for everything, not just in everything. The popular celebrity’s advice is bad in that is not fully correct. It is easy to thank God for the good things. Anyone can do that. The difficult part is thanking Him for the trials and troubles, the negative circumstances, and incorrigible people that we often have have to deal with.

What Does the Bible Say about Thanking God?

We have alluded to several passages that encourage the giving thanks to God under any and all situations of life. In Ephesians 5:15-21 we are given instructions on how to walk in wisdom. We are to learn to “redeem the time,” we are “not to be unwise, but [to] understand what the will of the Lord is.” And a large part of the Lord’s will would be learning the “giving of thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is not a parenthesis to this verse. “Always” means exactly that. “All things” doesn’t mean “some things,” or even “most things.” It means “all things.” Again, whether good, bad, or indifferent from the human point of view. I would infer that the only things we should not be thankful for are the very sins we commit against a Holy God. But we can be thankful for the circumstances that surround the results of sin because they are designed by God for our good.

We should learn to take seriously and believe the instruction we have from God’s Word. We need to act in accordance with what we are supposed to know. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Perhaps we should seriously consider following the example of David in regard to thanks. Psalm 34 says that it is “A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.” The circumstance for David and his men was not good. But in the midst of this trying time, he was obedient and gave God thanks. The Psalm begins, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together” (34:1-3).

Let us practice the principle of praise, for His glory and our good!