Tag: Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving – Focus on the Good

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Holiday

I recently held a revival meeting in Binghamton, New York, with a wonderful congregation, who is privileged to be shepherded by a fine man of God and his wife. God gave a gracious moving of His spirit, as well as a wonderful time of fellowship with the parsonage family. The pastor, Rev. Rowan Fay, is such a delightful man, full of optimism and cheer. In our conversations together, he was ever sharing something good about the people in the church or community or about someone both of us knew. It seemed that he spoke of every person in such delightful, positive terms. I became so intrigued by his genuinely positive evaluation of people that I asked him the “secret” to seeing the good in all men. He told me that his father, Rev. O.L. Fay, had instilled in him as a young man this philosophy. He would say, “Son, look for all the good in all the men which you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you know men for the good that is in them.” This little nugget of pure gold struck a responsive chord in my own heart. What a refreshing view of life!

The unfortunate truth is that far too many Christians have developed a view of life that has them focused on the bad. They are always looking suspiciously for the flaws, weaknesses and failures of others. If any good is seen or ever mentioned, it is only by accident and not by design. There are even those who almost feel that it is their Christian duty to speak of everything and everyone in somber, negative tones. What an awful view of life!

Christians who live out this simple philosophy of Brother Fay are just naïve people who are blind to all the warts and failures of others who are around them. Rather, they are those who have chosen to catch and possess the spirit of perfect love that is found in the New Testament. Jesus looked upon a renegade tax collector and saw a man—filled with potential. Jesus looked upon the emotionally volatile Peter and saw a “rock” of a man that would lead His church. The New Testament teaches us that perfect love enables us to “suffer long,” and “speak kindly” to and of our brothers. On the other hand, it is the writing of the book of Proverbs who tells us “the ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire. A perverse man sows strife and a whisperer separates the best of friends.”

I know that a Dale Carnegie course or a Zig Ziglar seminar can teach a man how to have public optimism for the good of his business. However, I am convinced that it is only the work of God in the soul that can enable us to see the redeemable good in others, to dwell on that good, and to speak of others in kind and positive ways.

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches, let me challenge you to look for all the good in all the men that you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you will know men for the good that is in them, so that on this Thanksgiving Day, you can thank God for good men.

The Grace of Gratitude

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Holiday, Theology

–November of 2003

The Grace of Gratitude

According to a medieval legend, two angels were once sent down to earth, one to gather up petitions and the other to collect thanksgivings.  The first angel found petitions everywhere.  He soon returned to heaven with a huge load of them on his back and a bundle in each hand.  The second angel had no such easy time.  He had to search diligently to find even a mere handful to take back to heaven.

Admittedly, legends can be farfetched and unrealistic or they can be painfully accurate.  This one, however, is much too accurate for comfort.  We would all have to admit that the high-stakes scramble for more of this world’s good has robbed the church of her voice of thanksgiving.  Our long period of materialistic comfort has made us easy in Zion and unaccustomed to the exercise of humble gratitude.

The Apostle Paul knew the importance of gratitude to the Christian as well as the subtle danger of ingratitude.  Listen to the music of gratitude that plays through his epistle to the Colossians:

Chapter one, verse 3:  “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus.”

Chapter one, verse 12:  “…giving thanks unto the Father.”

Chapter two, verse 7:  “…abounding…with thanksgiving.”

Chapter three, verse 17:  “…giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him.”

Chapter four, verse 17:  “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”

Paul’s hymnody of thanks seems to center in chapter three, verse 15 when he says, “And be ye thankful.”

Paul’s strong imperative to “wear a garment of gratitude” is anchored to three firm convictions in the Apostle’s life.

Paul saw gratitude as a required grace.  Not a luxury but a necessity, not an option but a conviction.  Paul placed it among the required rather than the elective classes in the school of Christian experience.  I have a debt to be grateful!

I owe it to God to be grateful.  He has given me life, eternal life and the opportunity to do something with it.

I owe it to others to be grateful.  A sour, complaining spirit spreads gloom.  However, a joyful, cheerful spirit brings sunshine and smiles wherever it goes.

I owe it to myself.  Your physician will tell you that a mean, bitter, thankless spirit harms our health and robs us of life.  But of greater concern is what ingratitude does to us spiritually.  Of the thirteen plagues that came upon the children of Israel in their wilderness journey, eleven of those were punishment for murmuring against God.  In Romans chapter one, Paul charts the awful journey from godliness to godlessness.  He says in verse 21 that part of the root cause for such deviation is a spirit of ingratitude, “Neither were they thankful.”

Gratitude is also a ripening grace.  A more literal translation of Paul’s words would be, “and become ye thankful.”  We must seek the grace of gratitude and cultivate the grace of gratitude until we are “abounding with thanksgiving.”  This is not an easy task.  None will ever overflow with thanksgiving until they see that gratitude is an inner disposition towards life that must be worked at.  Life has its mix of good and bad – of the difficult and the delightful; but it’s up to us as to how we respond to that mix.  Some people in examining a bush unhappily see only the thorns; others rejoice in the fragrance of its roses.  The lens through which we view life is so important.  Jacob saw his days as “few and evil.”  He described the loss of Joseph and the famine that reunited them with these words, “all these things be against me.”  However Joseph looked at life through the lens of gratitude and described the same time period with a different set of words completely.  Joseph said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”  We see exactly what we discipline ourselves to see in life, and looking through the lens of thanksgiving will ripen us.

If it often said among Christians that our reward is in the world to come.  However, gratitude is a rewarding grace.  It has its own reward for us right now.

Gratitude exalts God.  Very few things honor and glorify God more than the sweet fragrance of a thankful soul.  It expels gloom and ushers in sweet peace and blessed hope.  More than once the child of God has used thanksgiving to drive back the clouds of sorrow and gloom.  Gratitude encourages graciousness.  It gives us the politeness of soul and graciousness of spirit that can’t be purchased for any amount of money.

Let’s declare war on whimpering and complaining!  Let’s put away from us forever the grumbling and fault-finding that is such a blight on the church today!  Reach into the closet of God’s grace and adorn yourself with the garment of gratitude!  It will make a difference!

God Will Do What It Takes

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday, Theology

–November of 1997

God Will Do What It Takes

Thanksgiving this year finds me in the praise section, giving God thanks for something a little off the well-worn path of typical praise petitions.  I’m thankful that God will always do whatever it takes to make me His and to get me home.

God has proven over the years that He will do whatever it takes to get me safely home to Heaven.  Popular writer Max Lucado tells a story in one of his books about a plane ride.  While flying over Missouri, the plane encountered a storm.  The flight attendant gave the order for everyone to take his seat.  It was a rowdy flight, and the passengers were slow to respond.  She gave the warning again.  With some still not responding, she changed her tone of voice and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for your own safety take your seats.”  One would have thought that by this time everyone would have been in his seat buckled up; but apparently that was not the case, because the next voice that was heard was that of the pilot.  “This is the captain,” he advised.  “People have gotten hurt by going to the bathroom instead of staying in their seats.  Let’s do what I say.  Now sit down and buckle up!”  About that time the bathroom door opened, and a red-faced fellow with a sheepish grin exited and took his seat.  The pilot was not being insensitive or unthoughtful, but rather just the opposite.  He would rather the man be safe and embarrassed than uninformed and hurt.  Any good pilot will do what it takes to get his passengers to the airport safely.

God has been teaching me that He will do whatever it takes to get us safely home.  He will whisper, shout, touch, and tug.  He will be kind and stern, tender or tough.  He will lift burdens or take away blessing.  He will do what it takes.  He will allow my world to be crushed and my heart to be trampled if that is necessary.  God will do whatever it takes to get me home to Heaven.

He will do whatever it takes to make sure that we are completely His.  God’s goal is not our happiness but our holiness.  He is not scampering about the landscape seeking ways to meet our every want, but He is committed to turning the world upside down, if necessary, to provide us what we need to be holy.  If suffering is what we need, God will let the storm break in upon us.  If it is adversity that we need, God may allow the devil to unleash his hoards against us.  If it is the tender caress of His heavenly hand or a miraculous answer to prayer, God will make sure it comes.  Whatever we need to conform us to His image, God will see that it is there.  This is consistently reaffirmed in Scripture.  Israel could have been out of Egypt and in the land of promise by foot in only eleven days.  But God took them on the forty-year route.  Why?  Deuteronomy 8:22-24 tells us that He wanted them to suffer hunger and then feed them manna so they would know that “man does not live by bread alone.”  Their clothes would not wear out, and their feet would not swell so that they could learn that He is absolutely trustworthy.  He sent the Hebrew boys into the fire, He sent His disciples into the storm, and He sends His Church into a world that promises opposition and hatred.  But through it all, He brings us through.  He does whatever it takes to make us His, to make us holy, and to get us home safely.

This Thanksgiving you can look for me in the praise section, and my note of praise is going to say, “Thank God that our Heavenly Father will do whatever it takes to make us His and to get us home.”

This Thanksgiving, Focus on the Good

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday

–November of 1996

This Thanksgiving, Focus on the Good

I recently held a revival meeting in Binghamton, New York, with a wonderful congregation, who is privileged to be shepherded by a fine man of God and his wife.  God gave a gracious moving of His spirit, as well as a wonderful time of fellowship with the parsonage family.  The pastor, Rev. Rowan Fay, is such a delightful man, full of optimism and cheer.  In our conversations together, he was ever sharing something good about the people in the church or community or about someone both of us knew.  It seemed that he spoke of every person in such delightful, positive terms.  I became so intrigued by his genuinely positive evaluation of people that I asked him the “secret” to seeing the good in all men.  He told me that his father, Rev. O.L. Fay, had instilled in him as a young man this philosophy.  He would say, “Son, look for all the good in all the men which you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you know men for the good that is in them.”  This little nugget of pure gold struck a responsive chord in my own heart.  What a refreshing view of life!

The unfortunate truth is that far too many Christians have developed a view of life that has them focused on the bad.  They are always looking suspiciously for the flaws, weaknesses and failures of others.  If any good is seen or ever mentioned, it is only by accident and not by design.  There are even those who almost feel that it is their Christian duty to speak of everything and everyone in somber, negative tones.  What an awful view of life!

Christians who live out this simple philosophy of Brother Fay are just naïve people who are blind to all the warts and failures of others who are around them.  Rather, they are those who have chosen to catch and possess the spirit of perfect love that is found in the New Testament.  Jesus looked upon a renegade tax collector and saw a man—filled with potential.  Jesus looked upon the emotionally volatile Peter and saw a “rock” of a man that would lead His church.  The New Testament teaches us that perfect love enables us to “suffer long,” and “speak kindly” to and of our brothers.  On the other hand, it is the writing of the book of Proverbs who tells us “the ungodly man digs up evil, and it is on his lips like a burning fire.  A perverse man sows strife and a whisperer separates the best of friends.”

I know that a Dale Carnegie course or a Zig Zigler seminar can teach a man how to have public optimism for the good of his business.  However, I am convinced that it is only the work of God in the soul that can enable us to see the redeemable good in others, to dwell on that good, and to speak of others in kind and positive ways.

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches, let me challenge you to look for all the good in all the men that you can; and when you have found it, dwell on it until you will know men for the good that is in them, so that on this Thanksgiving Day, you can thank God for good men.