**Part 1 of this devotional was posted November 17th.
The second thing to consider about gratitude is that it honors God. And I got this idea straight out of the Bible from the Revised Standard Version of Psalm 50, verse 23. This is what it says, “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!” He honors me and prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.
Let me go back to October 25, 1972. That was a rather eventful day in my life. I found an apartment for my mother who was moving from Florida up to Massachusetts to be near three of her six children. So that was a major thing that happened that day. Then the son of a very close friend of mine was killed in an automobile accident. I had a visit from a young woman who had a three-year-old son with a serious heart anomaly. And we had sat down in my living room and talked about the lessons that God was teaching her through this one of which was acceptance and gratitude. The condition was such that the doctors had told her you never know when you may find him dead in his bed or in his playpen. And there’s nothing we can do until he reaches the age of four, but he may not make it to four.
And then that very same day, my husband had to go to the hospital for a lump on his lip. And that morning I had written down on just a little piece of scratch paper these words: “How to deal with suffering of any kind.” I didn’t know all of the things that were going to happen in that particular day. And I don’t know where this came from except I suppose from God. How to deal with suffering of any kind. Number one, I wrote, “Recognize it.” Number two, ”Accept it.” Number three, “Offer it to God as a sacrifice.” And number four, “Offer yourself with it.”
Now whether I had a premonition that this thing was going to be serious or whether I was just reviewing lessons from other years, I really don’t remember. But that same afternoon we were told by the doctor that my husband had cancer. The next night there was bleeding from another source which had nothing to do with that lump. We were filled with fear and resentment and worry, and it was all terribly real for both of us and necessitated our coming to Christ for a refuge.
You can imagine the dialogues that I began having with God at that point. “Lord, haven’t we been through this once before? You took husband number one. Now surely, Lord, You wouldn’t take Ad, would You?” And it was as if the Lord said, “I might. Trust Me.” So I had to begin all over again, I thought, learning lessons that I really thought I had learned well enough before. I was saying, “Lord, did I flunk the test? Do we have to go over this again?” And the answer was, “Yes, you have to go over it again.”
Now where do you turn? What do you do? You cry. You pray. You ask why? But then there’s a much better thing to do that is stated in this verse that I read you. “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!” (Ps. 50:23Rsv). Now there are a good many circuitous routes to learning to know God. But there are some shortcuts. And I’m here to suggest that gratitude is one of those shortcuts. Just start thanking God in advance because no matter what is about to happen, you already know that God is in charge. You are not adrift in a sea of chaos.
So, what is there to be grateful for in the midst of suffering? Well, God is still love. Nothing has changed that. God is still God. He’s sovereign. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He knew that my husband was going to get cancer on that particular day, or that we would find out about it on that particular day. Before the foundation of the world, He knew that. So He wasn’t taken by surprise. Love still wills my joy. Now I can always thank God for all of those things. Those are the facts along with these other horrible things with which we can hardly cope. It prepares the way so that I may show Him the salvation of God.
**As we draw to the end of the Thanksgiving season, we wanted to share this final excerpt originally published in Suffering is Never for Nothing pg. 64-67.