Practicing Thanksgiving

Gratitude is big business these days. There are gratitude journals, gratitude books, gratitude rocks, gratitude cards, gratitude stickers, and gratitude mugs. It’s a spiritual/emotional practice du jour. Research into the neuroscience of gratitude indicates that it affects the brain positively, almost like happy medications. It reduces toxic emotions like anxiety and depression, can reduce pain, improve sleep, and regulate stress. It may change the structure of the brain.

Because of all that, people are urged to practice gratitude, towards people, towards God, or towards no one in particular. There are lots of great exercises to do this, which are helpful as a way to get in the habit of being grateful.

Gratitude seems to help even people who think they live in an empty universe and don’t know who to thank. Hint: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17, ESV).

For followers of Jesus, there are dozens of verses on gratitude. I want to focus on one that always puzzled me. “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5-7, ESV).

This verse starts out how we’d expect. Don’t worry about things but pray about them. In Jesus’ teaching, it’s pretty clear that you’re not supposed to worry about things. And Jesus is “at hand,” meaning right there. Clear if not easy.

So what are you supposed to do? You engage in prayer (talking to God) and supplication (plead humbly, from the Latin “supplicare”). This also makes sense. If we need help, we ask God.

The part that didn’t quite make sense to me is the next piece. It doesn’t say that God will then answer the prayers and supplications, which seems like the logical next thing to happen if you pray. It says instead that the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Wait—that wasn’t what I was asking for. Does that really follow from the first part of the verse?

This year, I’ve had a lot of prayers that have not yet been answered, or perhaps have been answered no. This has gone on for a while. I thought dinner would have been ready by now, or indeed long before now, and I am practicing being an obedient and thankful child.

And this has led to a curious realization. The piece that I was missing in this verse was “thanksgiving.” When you make your requests known to God with thanksgiving, something very strange happens. The peace of God keeps your heart near to Christ Jesus. It seems that keeping our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus is a higher purpose of God’s than dealing with the “anything” that we are praying about. (Though He does care deeply about His children’s sorrows, even more than I care for my children and grandchildren.)

Although I wanted my prayers to be answered (and I still do, and I still wait for the Lord to act), the experience of having my heart close to Jesus has been so precious that the difficult situations have been well worth it. I am, therefore, thankful for those difficult times, and even more thankful that the Lord has been at hand.

By all means, practice gratitude. But not in a vacuum. Jesus likes to be thanked. And he is right there.