“Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
The first week of December this year will mark 6 years since I came and “auditioned” for the position of worship leader here. Wow.
One of the first things that grabbed my attention when I was in the interview process with Ron and the lead team here at The Well was one particular line in our vision and mission statement:
We also believe that prayer is as important as the air we breathe.
Now, there's a lot of other good stuff in our vision statement, and plenty of exciting stuff to put your time and energy into if you get involved in the down-to-earth, nitty-gritty of the vision we claim as a church.
But for some reason or another, THIS line is the one that I remember jumping out at me. THIS line made me stop and think. I was curious to see this. To see how it all worked out.
And 6 years later, it's still jumping out at me. I know I've dragged it out in messages before. I know Ron's talked about it. We've done months of prayer, and 48-hour prayer weekends, and stations of prayer during services in church.
But this line STILL makes me stop and think.
And I guess, in a way, I'm still curious to see this. To see how it all works out.
See, we've talked over this past year particularly about these memorials that the Israelites set up to remind themselves of what God had done for them in the past. We've started up this “memorial jar” of things we're thankful for or ways we've seen God at work in our lives and the life of the church here. We talked about living out of an attitude of thankfulness last week with Thanksgiving, and how easy it is to forget...how simple it is to break or dismantle those memorials (much like our jar broke) and forget...to lose focus...to center our lives on something else...
But then that line comes back to me: WE ALSO BELIEVE THAT PRAYER IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE AIR WE BREATHE...
If that's the case, HOW CAN WE center our lives on something else?
In theory, if it's our very breath, then our life depends on it. Not just us, personally, but perhaps even more so, our life as a church, as a congregation in this community.
If we stop breathing, don't we also stop living?
Now, this has been rattling around in my brain for quite some time, now. Like I said, it's the thing that jumped out at me right from the get-go six years ago. But really, it's been shoved into the limelight in my life in a bunch of ways lately that just won't leave me alone.
Okay, so one way in particular that won't leave me alone. And I'm glad she doesn't.
Maelle has been, from time to time, like most kids, a challenge. She's kept us on our toes, and taught us more about ourselves and each other than we possibly knew before. She has made us laugh, cry, tested our patience, and scared the heck out of us plenty of times.
A few months back, Milena looked at me after Maelle had been up to something for the millionth time after being told no, and said: “It's a miracle any of us ever turn out as decent people”. It's a funny statement, but it made me think about how we learn. We learn, from a young age, by having the lessons in life repeated again and again and again and again and again... over and over and over until we understand, and it changes the way we behave in that particular scenario.
And I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the line, for me, anyway, I began to get frustrated with having the same lesson put in front of me all the time. I hit a point in life where I'd look at a situation, and wonder why I had to learn this lesson all over again... why I had to go through this, rehash it, over and over and over again... but then, if I have to learn it, DID I ever learn it in the first place? If I had already learned it, I'd have the answer—the appropriate response—and it wouldn't be a lesson that was staring me in the face right now. I'd just move through, on to the next thing.
If I have already learned that 2+2=4, it's not a lesson every time I face it. I already know it.
So we've been working with Maelle, as every parent does with their young kids, on teaching her how she should live and respond to other people...what things she should say or not say, the things that she should and shouldn't do...trying to teach her important values that will help her later on in life.
And in that, God has been using her as he has been teaching me immense lessons about the passage I read at the start of the message.
Let's read it again:
MESSAGE
“13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.
16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
19-22 Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!”
This whole passage is SATURATED, positively SOAKED in prayer. Paul is speaking these things to the church in Thessalonica, trying to remind them and teach them how to “be decent people”, in a sense, but can you HEAR the heart of prayer behind these words? Paul is PRAYING these words over this church even as he writes them on the page as encouragement.
The center section is the part that God has been placing in front of me so often lately. It's a lesson where I still have a lot to learn:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances;
Always.
Continually.
In ALL circumstances.
Yikes. Those are hard words. Absolutes. They don't leave room for exceptions.
Always?
Continually?
In ALL circumstances?
Yeah, I fall short. Way short. Thank goodness that God doesn't give up on us, but instead, like a parent, keep teaching the lesson over and over and over again.
REJOICE. PRAY. GIVE THANKS.
NO MATTER WHAT.
As Ron shared last week, after I spoke in April, and challenged us all to find some way of creating these “memorials” in our lives, with a thankfulness jar, or something along those lines, Milena and I started one, where we'd stick things that we were thankful for. It's a simple, easy way to just begin to get into that mindset of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks. But it's easy to forget. SO EASY.
Enter Maelle. She's been seeing us as we've struggled with trying to make these “attitudes of the heart” a habit... as we've sought to make these things a natural response to life as it happens around us.
She's been watching as her Daddy says to her over and over again that even when things don't go the way we want them to, we need to be thankful that we get the chance to keep moving forward and try again.
She's been watching as her Mommy asks her every night to list the things that she's thankful for, and tell God what they are.
But she's also been watching when her Daddy comes home, worn out and tired from work, frustrated at the pace of work, the hours, the pay...and complains to Mommy, rather than being thankful that he even has a job, and is able to work to help provide for his family.
And she's been watching when her Mommy calls Daddy, frustrated that things aren't working out, and the kids won't sleep, and...
She's been watching.
And even though she's never heard or read this passage yet, she's taught me more in the past six months about what this passage means than I ever knew before.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking through the whole concept of our thankfulness jar (now a thankfulness “tree”), and why it was so easy to forget to just do it...and thinking about what I might speak about this week, and thinking ahead to Ron's message this past week—trying to plan the service for it, and Maelle was watching a movie.
I wasn't even really sure what movie she was watching, until this came on: (play video: “Thank You Song Girl”)
And it hit me how simple and true that statement is--
A thankful heart is a happy heart.
Listen to the words for a minute:
“I thank God for this day, for the sun in the sky,
for my Mom and my Dad, for my piece of apple pie
for my home on the ground, for His love that's all around,
That's why I say “Thanks” every day...
Because a thankful heart is a happy heart,
I'm glad for what I have; that's an easy way to start.
For the love that He shares, cuz he listens to my prayers,
That's why I say “Thanks” every day.”
A thankful heart, a heart that gives thanks regardless of the circumstances, is a happy heart—a heart that rejoices always.
And lo and behold, by simply saying “thanks”, you're offering up a prayer.
So maybe thanking God for what we have is JUST THAT... an easy way to start... to start being thankful in all circumstances... to start rejoicing always... and to start praying continually...
Woah. (And now you see how my mind works...)
All this from Veggie Tales. Who knew that they were summing up this passage in a simple song?
This song has become one of Maelle's favorite songs...and she'll quote it all the time, reminding me that “a thankful heart is a happy heart”. It's both heartwarming as a parent to see her taking this to heart, and at the same time, it hits me as a severe challenge in an area I KNOW I fall down in so often.
Maelle has also grabbed hold of another simple truth I so often forget—NOTHING is too small to thank God for. She'll thank him for her potatoes at dinner. For the color “oyndge”. For the bug that she saw outside. For seeing a friend. For the blueberries she got before bed. For watching a movie. For Christmas last year. For blowing her nose. For the doctor. For... the list goes on.
And I can't help but wonder... where did I lose that thankfulness?
What is it that happens in life that causes us to think that things are too trivial... that we're too busy... that God doesn't really care, doesn't listen to our prayers?
Where do we learn this idea that causes us to only go to God when things are hard? TO ask for help when we need it, or for things or money when we want them?
I mean, think about any other major relationship in your life...your parents, your siblings, your husband, your wife, best friends, etc...do you only talk to those people when you NEED SOMETHING from them? When something is going wrong?
No! We talk to these people all the time! About the good AND the bad... about the exciting AND the mundane! About EVERYTHING! And we don't sit there worrying about whether or not what we have to say to them is important enough to bother them with, or if they're going to care about it or not—we just say it!
Again, enter Maelle. And enter the childlike faith.
And now I understand.
We're called, by Jesus, to have childlike faith. So often, we think of this as a blind acceptance of what we've been told... or as something that's simplistic...
And, while it may be simple, it's not simplistic. While it may be simple, it's downright complicated. But somehow, our kids get it, while we don't.
In Genesis, we read about Adam and Eve—the first people on earth, walking with God in the evening, in the garden he had made for them to live in. You get the sense that God just came to meet with them every day, to hang out, to chat... to talk about life. They were God's children. God was their father.
'How are things going in the garden?'
'What did you do today?'
Anything. Anything at all. And not because God particularly NEEDED to know, but because he WANTED to know. He had created these people, and wanted to be a part of their lives, as much as his very breath and life was in them. God cared about it all. So he wanted to hear it all.
And then, came the fall. Adam and Eve disobeyed, rebelled, and were ashamed of it. They were afraid to share it with God. They experienced separation.
And I'd imagine, with that separation, a sense of “does God REALLY care about all these little things in my life anymore?”... “Does he REALLY want to know all of this... or just the really big things?”
See, when we're in close, meaningful, intimate relationship with someone, we don't have to question these things. We just KNOW.
When there's separation, the insecurity sets in.
The thing is, that separation doesn't need to be there anymore. In fact, through Christ, that separation ISN'T there anymore. His sacrifice on the cross tore down that wall for good. We are God's children. He IS our father.
And God wants to know what's going on in our lives. All of it. He cares! It matters to him! He created us to be in that relationship with him where we don't have to question these things... we just KNOW!
So faith like a child—faith that my father, my Daddy, cares about EVERYTHING that's going on in my life enough to say to me:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Wow. He wants to hear from me ALL THE TIME.
See, I think that separation occurs for us when we believe we can do it on our own.
Adam and Eve took things into their own hands and chose to rebel against God, choosing to do it on their own, almost questioning whether or not what God had said was true...forgetting that he was the very breath inside of their bodies.
We tend to almost ignore or forget God, unless we feel like we need him. So when things are going well, we don't pray as often, or at all. When we can see our way through our problems, we don't give thanks, we just pat ourselves on the back. When we accomplish something, we rejoice in ourselves.
Almost as if we can do it on our own. Forgetting that without God, we can't even breathe, let alone make these choices or take the next step.
We can't breathe on our own. It's God's breath that is in us, giving us life. Take God out of the picture for even a moment, and we would all cease to be. We NEED his breath to live.
We NEED to breathe.
So, for us here at The Well... do
We also believe that prayer is as important as the air we breathe?
If so, how do we demonstrate that? Do our neighbours see us rejoicing always, praying continually, and giving thanks in all circumstances? Do we see each other doing this? When you think of The Well, do you think of prayer?
If so, great. If not...does that mean we aren't breathing?
Let's watch this again: (play video: “Thank You Song Junior Asparagus”)
A thankful heart, a heart that gives thanks regardless of the circumstances, is a happy heart—a heart that rejoices always.
And lo and behold, by simply saying “thanks”, you're offering up a prayer.
So maybe thanking God for what we have is JUST THAT... an easy way to start... to start being thankful in all circumstances... to start rejoicing always... and to start praying continually...
Woah.
So now what? How do we start Rejoicing always? How do we pray continually? How do we give thanks in all circumstances?
I don't know.
And what I mean by that is, I'm still learning. I don't have all the answers, I've only got some ideas. And I have a little girl who reminds me all the time, as she thanks God for every little thing in her life, and sings that a thankful heart is a happy heart.
Turns out, it IS an easy way to start.
So I'm going to put that challenge in front of us again. This is the fourth time, now. Even if you think you're a pretty thankful person, let's do this together. Get yourself a jar. Make yourself a tree. Buy window markers and scribble it on your bathroom mirror. Whatever.
DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to write down ONE THING, JUST ONE THING every day (more if you want, but start with one!) that you are thankful for. And it doesn't matter if it's the same thing you've written before... if it's what comes to mind, be thankful for it!
It can be a new car. It can be a new job. It could be potatoes at dinner. For the color “oyndge”. For the bug that you saw outside. For seeing a friend. For the blueberries you got before bed. For watching a movie. For Christmas last year. For blowing your nose. For the doctor. For... the list goes on... NOTHING is too small.
Simply by doing this, you'll be rejoicing always in the things that God has given you and done in your life. You'll be praying prayers of thanks continually, as you write these things out. And you'll be giving thanks in all circumstances by engaging an attitude of thankfulness EVERY DAY.
This should be as natural to us as breathing. It should be as important to us as the air we breathe. Let's be the church that people think of when they hear the word “prayer”. Let's be the people who know, believe, and REVEL in the fact that we have a God who wants to walk with us, and hear what's going on with us SO MUCH that His only SON gave up his life so that the separation between us could be erased.
Seriously, if we can't at least write THAT as something we're thankful for on a slip of paper every day, where are we?
It's humbling to me at times to think that there are things that my children grasp in a deeper sense than I do... things that they have an easier time walking out from day to day.
But then I remember what I mentioned earlier—we've been challenged to live life with the faith of a child. So maybe it's not something to be threatened by... but rather something to be thankful for. I have a living, breathing example running around my house every day, keeping me up at night, and reminding me almost daily that:
“Daddy, a sankfow hawt is a happy hawt!”.
It really IS an easy way to start.
I think this passage is such a beautiful encouragement and prayer. God inspired these words in Paul's heart through the Holy Spirit, as a prayer to build into the church he was ministering to, and I want to use them as a prayer of blessing over all of us here today:
“Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,[c] encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
Amen.
