P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

CONNIE: Is Thanksgiving just a day—a holiday when we eat too much? Or is it a way. A way of living for you? Join us today as we consider the Bible’s counsel for living more thankful, joyful lives.

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Welcome to our broadcast. We’re pleased that you’ve decided to join us today.

CONNIE: In fact we’re grateful for each of our listeners—glad you’ve chosen to spend a little time today focusing on God’s Word with us. Our focus today is on gratefulness—the benefits of having an attitude of gratitude.

LONNIE: Connie, I really believe in the power of a grateful attitude to change things in our world—I think it was very important in the early spread of the gospel around the world, and I’ll be speaking about that more in my sermon today. But first I want to express my personal gratitude to you, Connie, for having that positive attitude yourself.
CONNIE: How do you mean?

LONNIE: Well, I just happen to remember a Thursday morning not too long ago here at Voice of Prophecy. Now, many of our listeners know that on Thursday mornings our entire staff gets together in our worship room to review the hundreds of prayer requests that have come in to our Worldwide Prayer Circle, and to pray for those requests. But usually before we pray, one of our staff leads out in a brief devotional. I still remember the morning when you led out and shared your personal wall of gratitude—expressing gratefulness to each member of our Voice of Prophecy family. Would you share a bit about that with our radio family today?

LONNIE: Gratitude truly can be a powerful element for making our lives more joyful, can’t it?

CONNIE: And it can transform people around us too. I saw a story recently about an elementary school that was transformed when the teacher taught a rather unusual subject.

LONNIE: I’m sure it had something to do with being thankful.

CONNIE: It seems that the school was having serious problems with bullying until Mrs. Braun came up with an original solution. She began encouraging students to write notes about good things other students had done instead of always just reporting the bad. And she posted the notes on a bulletin board.

LONNIE: That must have had quite an effect on the school.

CONNIE: Yes, it did. Bullying went way down, and students learned to go out of their way to help others. It turned out to be a far better solution to the bullying problem than punishing the bullies had ever been.

LONNIE: Honoring others, and praising them for a job well done, is a great way to improve things in the world. And it’s also an important part of our relationship to God. To give Him the praise and honor due His name.

“Honor and Praise”, Brothers in Song, from Think About His Love CD.

CONNIE: Amen! Honor, praise, gratitude—they’re all important elements in our relationships with other people, and in our relationship to God. And in case you’re wondering who sang the song, it was none other than Lonnie Melashenko, along with his brother Joedy.

LONNIE: That’s right, Joedy and I have been singing together from the time we were knee-high to a grasshopper, and recently he got me into the studio to produce this CD.

CONNIE: As always, we encourage you to visit us on the Internet at vop.com if you’d like to know more about the music you hear on our broadcast—or how you can get a copy of the CD.

LONNIE: But that’s not the only reason we encourage you to drop by for a visit on the worldwide web. We’re constantly updating our site with new materials. I’m especially excited right now about the Exploring the Word television broadcast that’s available via satellite each week. The great thing about the Internet is that if you don’t have a satellite dish to pick up the program, you can view it online, at your convenience. Just go to vop.com and click on the link to Exploring the Word. You can view this week’s program right at your computer.

CONNIE: And you’ll notice that in many of the Exploring the Word programs, Lonnie and Jeannie refer to another resource—the Discover Bible Lessons. Would you believe you can study these lessons right at the same place on the Internet?

LONNIE: We want to make it as easy as possible for people to dig into God’s word and explore it for themselves, so you’ll find a wealth of resource materials available at vop.com. We especially encourage you to take advantage of the online Discover Bible School you’ll find there.

CONNIE: If you’d like to take the lessons, but don’t have a computer, you can take the course by correspondence. To enroll for lessons to come in the mail, just write to us at Voice of Prophecy, Box 53055, Los Angeles, 90053. Again: Box 53055, Los Angeles, 90053, or from Canada, Box 2127, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7V4.

LONNIE: We’d truly love to hear from you this week.

CONNIE: But right now let’s listen as Pastor Lonnie shares today’s message, “The Grateful Living.”

The Grateful Living

I found myself thinking recently about a young man I told you about on a program three years ago. Naeem. I wonder where he is today, I wonder what he’s doing.

Back in 2001 we found his picture in an article about Afghanistan’s Garbage Kids, and here’s how we described his life:

“Naeem, you see, is an Afghan refugee living in Pakistan. He and his five brothers, ranging in age from 7 to 15, are what's known as ‘garbage kids.’ All day, every day, they scavenge through garbage heaps and open sewers, looking for little bits of plastic, glass, and paper, even used syringes discarded by heroin addicts, that they can collect and sell at a recycling center. On a really good day, the five of them can bring home $1.50! That's total--for all five. Most days they make less than a dollar to carry back home and share with their mother and their three-year-old brother who isn't yet quite old enough to join them in their work.”

The thing that called him to our attention back then was his picture—it appeared in the Los Angeles Times in October, 2001. That rugged, dirty face with the million-dollar smile. Naeem was smiling because of a gift he had received—three gifts actually: a small plastic bag with a few ounces of fresh meat, another bag with a few curried vegetables, and a tea cup.

Small treasures for sure, but he looks more delighted than most American kids would, even if they got everything on their Santa’s wish list at Christmastime.

It just so happens that it was about Christmastime when we began preparing this program about thankfulness. And I couldn’t help but wonder. Where is Naeem today. Is he still alive? Is he still happy and thankful for the little things in life? This past Christmas I was amazed at the number of ads on TV and in the newspaper and on billboards, suggesting that gift-giving would be easy this year—all I needed to do was buy my dear wife Jeannie a brand new Jaguar X-Class, and she’d be oh, so happy!

I wonder how many people got Jaguars—or Chevys or Volvos for Christmas.

And I wonder how many of them were as happy as Naeem looks with his three little gifts.

Thankfulness itself is a gift, isn’t it? The ability to appreciate gifts large or small is a precious thing. In fact it’s something most of us could probably use more of.

Did you find yourself feeling thankful for your home and family the day after Christmas, 2004? As reports and pictures began to flood our screens, coming from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India, of the devastation resulting from the 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, my heart went out in sympathy for the millions of people left without the basic necessities of life. And my heart also rose once again in thankfulness for the life and health that God has granted me.

As the stories filtered in from the disaster area, we heard of people whose whole families—wives, children, parents, cousins had been swept out to sea as they watched helplessly. A father in India told of how the water from the tsunami invaded his home while he and his five children were sitting at the breakfast table. The last memory he has of his children is of watching helplessly as they one by one lost their grip on the windowsill and were carried out to sea. Two days later he consoled himself with the thought that at least his wife and mother had survived along with him. For that he could be thankful.

Friend, I don’t know about you, but when I read stories like that, I just can’t imagine the horror that people have been through. I marvel at the resilience of the human spirit that looks around in even the bleakest of circumstances and finds something to be thankful for. And I resolve in my own heart to be more thankful each day of life.

It’s almost a truism, isn’t it, that we tend to find the most to be thankful for when life has been the most difficult.

Why is it that when I travel to countries where most of the citizens have far less of the world’s goods and comforts than my neighbors do, I see more smiles, more genuine gratitude for life, than I do in my own neighborhood?

It almost seems that the less we have, the more we appreciate it.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is to be found in the life of the apostle Paul. He likely came from a fairly well-to-do background. But it was only when he learned to consider all the things of the world as rubbish and gave himself wholly to Jesus that he began to really appreciate life. In Philippians 3:8 he writes, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (NASB).

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is an amazing testimony to the ability of the human spirit, empowered by Jesus Christ, to find joy and thankfulness in every part of life. Paul wrote this letter during one of the most trying times in his life. In it he writes about the chains that bind him—literal chains—because he is a prisoner.

He’s spent the past several years in Roman custody, on trial for his faith. And at this point his prospects are anything but bright.

He’s awaiting trial before Caesar. And the Caesar he’s dealing with just happens to be a fellow named Nero—hardly a friend of Christians.

Nevertheless the epistle to the Philippians is known as one of Paul’s most joyful letters.

How could Paul be so joyful under such dreadful circumstances—bound by chains, living in a dark, dank, Roman prison?

He gives us his secret in chapter four. This is where he tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

How can a person do that in a world full of trials and troubles? Here’s Paul’s secret, found just two verses later in Philippians 4, verses six and seven: “Have no anxiety 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 passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (RSV).

Paul was a man at peace with himself and with his world—whatever came his way. He was able to accept life as it came to him—and to deal with it. We see no wishful thinking here—looking wistfully back to the good old days when life was simpler. We sense no regrets for the life path he has chosen.

He can commit his current difficult circumstances to God and trust that in everything God is working for the good. He’s been through trials and imprisonment before. In fact he’d done some hard time in the prison at Philippi after being stripped naked and severely beaten by the authorities there. The story is told in Acts 16—you probably remember it—about how Paul and Silas were thrown into prison after being beaten, but then an earthquake came and they ended up being set free.

Do you remember how they spent their time in prison? Was it crying and bemoaning their fate, wondering why God hadn’t protected them from all evil while they were doing His work? No, of course not. Because Paul had learned the lesson of being thankful in all circumstances.

You know, I’ve often quoted Philippians 4:11 as a reminder to be content with life even in difficult circumstances. In the good old King James Version it goes like this: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

But the amazing thing is that Paul had learned to be more than just content with his circumstances. He’d learned to be content, thankful, yes even joyful, no matter what came his way. He’d learned how to quit worrying and start enjoying life.

And the secret to such a life of joy is found in the verses we shared earlier, from Philippians 4:6-7: “Have no anxiety 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 passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

To honestly be at peace with the world is such a gift. To have that peace of God that’s beyond what an unbeliever can ever experience or understand.

It’s not something you can find at a drug store.

It’s not something a psychiatrist or self-help guru can point you to.

It comes from a life surrendered to the will of God and an attitude of gratitude toward God.

Are you among the grateful living? If life seems full of worries and troubles, maybe it’s time to try the apostle’s recipe for peace.

Find a quiet place. Reserve a few moments out of your day—right at the start if you can. Take some time to think over the day ahead. And if the worries start to come, the anxieties start to rob you of your peace, take them, one by one, and present them to God prayerfully.

Notice it says “with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.” This is a three-part recipe. Prayer implies an attitude of submission to God—a worshipful attitude of coming before the Father in humility. That’s step 1. But take special note of the second ingredient: Supplication. The root meaning of this word is “to ask” or “to seek.” When we come to Him in prayer, God wants us to tell Him, not just about our needs, but about the things we want—the things that are important to us. The parts of our lives we’d like Him to intervene in.

In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us that God already knows what we need before we pray. He wants to hear from us about what’s on our want list. He wants us to feel free to open up to Him about the deepest desires of our hearts. Talk to Him—as you would to a friend—about these things.

And then add the third ingredient: Thanksgiving. Remembering how God has answered your prayers in the past. Expressing gratitude for the good things life has brought you. Taking a positive accounting of the blessings you’ve encountered on your journey. Being grateful for life itself—even with all its challenges.

It’s guaranteed to lift your spirits and to bring you closer to Jesus. As Paul expressed it, “the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

It’s a good thing to be thankful. To rediscover the joy of relishing each of God’s blessings.

Try it. At the beginning and end of each day—and maybe even in the middle of the day. And see if it doesn’t put a new spring in your step, a new smile on your face, as you learn to enjoy life more, as one of the grateful living.

“Give Thanks”, Heritage Singers, from Acapella CD.