Alcoholics Anonymous have developed a ‘twelve step programme’ to helping people struggling with alcohol addiction, beginning with the acknowledgment that in themselves, people were powerless to overcome the addiction and needed the help of a ‘higher Power’. The Psalms give us many reasons for thanksgiving, but we are looking at just twelve of these reasons which give us hope in all situations.

God is Gracious

God’s grace surrounds us and supports us. We cannot earn it or deserve it, but His grace is poured our freely to us (see Ps 103:8; Ps 111:4; Ps 116:5). God’s grace is like the sunshine on our faces (see Ps 67:1), bringing us into freedom and hope. Grace means we can be held up at all times; it like a life buoy keeping us afloat and safe in choppy seas.

God is Compassionate

God literally ‘suffers with’ us (see Ps 86:15, Ps 103:8, Ps 145:8). His compassion for us means we are never alone in our grief and troubles; as a father has compassion on children, so God has compassion on us. (Ps 103:13) God’s compassion means we can bring our sorrows and heartache to Him and so we can even give thanks in our suffering, for God’s compassion is great (Ps 119:156) to all He has made (Ps 145:9).

God is Forgiving

Without God’s forgiveness, we would have no hope at all (see Ps 130:3-4), but God is the One who forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps 103:3). His forgiveness offers us cleansing (Ps 51:2) and paves the way to blessing (Ps 32:1) and service (Ps 130:4). God’s forgiveness gives us a fresh start, washing the slate clean and giving us a second (and third and fourth…!) chance. The weight of guilt and shame can be lifted by God’s cleansing forgiveness.

God is Love

The Psalms tell us that God’s love ‘endures forever’ (see Ps 118:1, 12; Ps 136:1-3) and talk of God’s unfailing love (see Ps 52:8; Ps 31:16; Ps 26:3; Ps 107:15, 21, 31; see also 1 Cor 13). We can be thankful because God loves us for who we are (dearly loved children made in His image) and not for what we can do. We do not have to earn God’s love; it is a free gift offered to us every day. Just as a plant is nourished by sunlight, so God’s love nourishes and nurtures us. Even if we are forsaken and rejected by people, God’s love remains constant and unchanging.

God is Good

God’s goodness is the basis of all He does because He always acts in consistency (congruence) with His nature. He is good and what He does is good. (Ps 119:68) His goodness is talked about in many psalms (e.g. Ps 73:1; Ps 23:6; Ps 118:1, 12; Ps 136:1; Ps 145:7); He is indeed a ‘good, good Father’, as Chris Tomlin sings. God is able to turn evil into good, to work for the good of those who love Him in every situation (see Rom 8:28). The enemy lies to us about God’s goodness. The world tells us we cannot trust in God’s goodness when we see evil flourishing. Nonetheless, goodness is at the heart of who God is and is our security at all times.

God is Just

Righteousness and justice are often closely linked (see Ps 36:6; Ps 89:14; Ps 11:6; Ps 50:6). We live in a world of injustice and our perspective can be tainted because of this (see Ps 73). When we realise God is just, we can have confidence even when we suffer injustice, and we can trust God ultimately to right all wrongs. Ps 101:1 tells us that justice and love can be the theme of our songs!

God is Merciful

God’s mercies are new every morning and His mercy becomes a great source of hope for us, whether we have sinned, are in great need or in trouble (see Ps 31:9; Ps 25:6; Ps 41:4; Ps 57:1; Ps 79:8; Ps 130:2). God does not treat us as our sins deserve, which is the essence of mercy (see Ps 103:10). Mercy reflects God’s kindness to us. We would be lost without the mercy of God and can therefore be thankful that His mercy has found us and rescued us!

To Be Continued…!

Giving thanks to the Lord is a Biblical commandment, but so often we flounder, wondering how to do this and why this is mentioned so frequently. Some have even wondered if it is not rather egotistical of God to tell us to do this so often, rather like an insecure woman asking her beloved for frequent reassurances of his devotion.

Thanksgiving is necessary not to boost God’s ego, but to give us clarity in perspectives. By focussing on who God is and on what He has done, we develop our ‘long’ vision, our ability to see beyond our noses, so to speak! We learn to stand on the rock rather than sink into shifting sands (see Ps 40:1-2). We learn to engage with the ultimate reality instead of basing our lives on moving fantasies. We learn a ‘long obedience in the same direction’, to quote Nietzsche, and thus we have the capacity to become stable, mature people.

Giving thanks puts God in the centre of our lives and our universe. Our ego is displaced and we recognise who God is and whose we are. Giving thanks shapes and moulds our character, making us people who are unselfish, kind and positive – and generally nicer to get along with, because God’s character is shaping ours!

Life is like a journey made up of different steps.

One of the keys or steps to living wisely is to live with thankfulness and gratitude as our ‘default setting.’ This requires training and modification of our thought patterns. We are urged to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Rom 12:2)

The Bible acts as a rudder in how to think, steering us in the right direction. Many of the Psalms guide us in thanksgiving, providing solid reasons for thankfulness which can help us not only when we are happy, but when we face difficult situations. Paul tells us to ‘give thanks in all circumstances’ (1 Thess 5:18) and to ‘give thanks for everything’ (Eph 5:20). The Psalms of thanksgiving provide a firm foundation for thankfulness by focussing our attention on the character of God. Even when we face trials, suffering, temptation and heartache, God’s unchangeable nature gives us reasons for gratitude and hope.

Many psalms focus on specific attributes of God. We are looking at just twelve of them, asking God to transform our thinking so that we focus on these things as reasons for thankfulness, no matter what our external circumstances or internal feelings may say.

In our desire to thank Dave for his service as treasurer, we omitted to celebrate his birthday which took place while he was on holiday… The birthday box still awaits…

We did celebrate a birthday last night, though!

Yesterday we thanked Dave for 12 faithful years as the church treasurer and administrator and prayed for him. His integrity, generosity, faithfulness and good humour have helped the church enormously over the years. His ‘stint’ as treasurer saw us becoming a charity and moving from Beever Street to Market Street… buying a building that cost £185,000 when we only had just over £7,500 in the bank! God’s faithfulness to us in providing the money for this through Coalfields’ Regeneration Trust and others can be read here, but Dave’s willingness to step out in faith played a huge part in this. His vision of a big God helped us all to have faith that God would lead us into great things, and it is testimony to God’s amazing grace that we paid off all we owed on the building before the sale of the Beever Street premises went through.

Dave’s abiding philosophy as treasurer is from 1 Chron 29:14: ‘But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.’ He has always been willing to give to missions and to improving the building and only wants God to have the very best! He has worked unstintingly behind the scenes in all kinds of practical ways, always with a willing spirit and a generous heart, and we are so grateful for all he has done.

As a token of our appreciation, we gave Dave a gift… knowing he’ll have more time on his hands and his fondness for clocks, we bought a singing clock for him!

We also prayed for Herlen, who has taken over the role of treasurer. We are blessed to have so many people in our church who are willing to take on responsibilities and use their giftings to help the church. Thank you, Herlen!

Obedience is saying ‘yes’ to God and doing what He asks us to do. It will always be a response to God’s word to us as people.

Disobedience can be blatant at times (think of Jonah, running in the opposite direction to God’s commands!), but it can also be mixed with half-hearted obedience (think of Saul who protested to Samuel that he had obeyed God, even though Samuel could hear the bleating of sheep which told him Saul had not done all that had been asked of him.) Samuel reminded Saul that ‘to obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Sam 15:20) – half-hearted obedience is an insult to God who did not spare His only Son but gave Him freely for our sins.

Jonah is an example of how grudging our obedience can be at times. Even when Jonah finally obeyed God, he was not pleased that the Ninevites repented and were spared God’s judgment. (Jonah 4:1-2) Jonah knew God’s merciful, loving character, but still felt that Nineveh should have suffered judgment. He was happy to receive God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and protection from himself, but was reluctant to see that extended to others. We can be encouraged by the fact God uses complex, ungrateful, rebellious, disobedient people like Jonah! – that means there’s hope for us too! At the same time, we need to learn from Jonah’s example and understand that if we have received freely, we must also freely give. (Matt 10:8)

Obeying God is costly, but He is our rightful owner, the creator of heaven and earth and the One who has paid for us through the blood of Christ (Ps 47:2, 1 Chron 29:11, Gen 15:2, 8; Deut 9:26, Judges 6:22, Ps 68:20, 1 Cor 6:19-20). Jesus Himself learned obedience through what He suffered (Heb 5:8) and modelled costly obedience for us as He submitted His will to the Father’s in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42). We must learn to do the same if we are to enter into the blessings that God gives to all who obey.