On Making Those Thankful Lists

It’s easy to be thankful when things are going well. People say look around and list all your blessings. This is a good thing, but what about when we’re brokenhearted and grieving? In 2003, I lost my dad to Stage IV metastatic melanoma, the same disease I was fighting. A few months later, my oncologist told me I had “days to live.” Admittedly, at that time, making a gratitude list was a non-starter for me.

So what do we do when we face personal tragedy or deep loss? Let’s lean on God’s enabling grace and power to follow Habakkuk! In 3:17-19 Habakkuk lays out the hardest and highest form of thanksgiving. He tells us how and why to be thankful in the hardest of times, and even when things are good!

Even if the fig tree does not blossom, And there is no fruit on the vines, If the yield of the olive fails, And the fields produce no food, Even if the flock disappears from the fold, And there are no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will triumph in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like deer’s feet, And has me walk on my high places.  

Don’t Forget to List This!

Habakkuk’s thankful list was empty! He couldn’t scratch up even one meal let alone a Thanksgiving feast. Yet it turns out his most rewarding form of thanksgiving was triumphing in the Giver, not His gifts. We can say if God doesn’t remove the mountains in our lives, according to Habakkuk, He will enable us to rise up and walk right over them! How? By enabling us to revel in His victory, rejoice in His salvation, and soak up His power. In addition, He grants us supernatural stability, making our feet “like deer feet” to walk on the steep high places. In other words, we can truly cope with gratitude in any tribulation with Him! He is the grand prize of suffering as Job discovered at the end of his tunnel.

Now there’s a grateful list we always and already have in Jesus Christ! If you haven’t yet received Him into your life as your Savior, find out how here. Let us know if you trust in Him as Savior for the first time as a result of reading this blog and our Two Ways to Heaven tract!

Happy Thanksgiving!