Grateful Hearts v. Foolish Hearts

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:20-22).

I have been impressed again recently with the importance of thankfulness in the Christian life and the disaster that can come when we wallow in our pain and suffering. I know from experience, because wallowing has been my response often in the past, and the result has never been good. While sadness certainly is an appropriate response to pain and suffering, we must never forget God's mercy to us as well, because it is always there, always new every morning.

I find it interesting in my research on the persecuted church that one of the responses of most victims is glorifying God and giving thanks to Him. Those who are thrown into prison often become instruments for spreading the gospel. If they have opportunity to comment on their experience, they often express their thankfulness that even though they have suffered, others have come to know Christ through their suffering. Those who have lost loved ones, like Gracia Burnham and Necati Aydin's widow in Turkey, often express thankfulness for the lives of their spouses, even though those lives may have ended violently and painfully.

It's interesting that Romans tells us that those who reject God and do not glorify Him or give Him thanks experience futile thinking and their foolish hearts become darkened. And this makes sense. We become so focused on our own pain and suffering and how much we don't have and what we've lost, that we lose sight of what we do have. It often seems that our bitterness hurts or even destroys those people and things for which we should be thankful.

Our chapel speaker today talked about Paul's last words in 2 Timothy 4. Paul talks about the fact that he has been betrayed in many ways by people he has trusted and invested himself in. To say that Paul's post-conversion life was a challenge--with arrests, shipwrecks, beatings, illnesses, imprisonments, and frequent betrayals--is an understatement. In spite of all of this, though, Paul gives thanks because "the Lord stood with me and strengthened me . . . And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom."

This is not a Pollyanna approach to life (although I'm starting to wonder if Pollyanna wasn't on to something). When we're reduced to nothing, when we feel like all is lost, whether it's a human relationship, our health, or our money, the Lord stands with us, delivering us and preserving us. And this is a reality for which we can always be thankful.