Practicing Thankfulness

In early February I had my first ever acute onset migraine. First I had strange vision changes, then numbness and tingling in my hand, arm, face and tongue. I ended up in the emergency room because I didn’t know what was going on, and thought at the time that I might be having a stroke. One of my coworkers drove me to the hospital, and Tim met me there soon after. Over the next few hours we were bombarded with texts and phone calls, everyone wanting to make sure that I was okay and see if they could help in any way. The doctor diagnosed migraine and cleared me to go home and try to sleep it off in a dark room. About a week after this, I came down with strep throat—fever, chills, and a throat that looked like something out of a horror movie.

by Shannon Sigler from Diary of an Arts Pastor

For me, illness is one of those things that can quickly get me down. It is frustrating to feel bad, be unable to focus or do anything, and be totally reliant upon others to take care of me. Both of these incidents challenged me to remain thankful for the wonderful life that I have (and challenged me to rest). 

A long time ago someone told me that if you can’t think of what to pray, just starting thanking God. Even if you feel there is nothing you can thank him for, start with the smallest things. It is very simple advice, but can have a lot of impact! Psalm 50:23 says, “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him […] I shall show the salvation of God.”  In Leviticus the process of “a sacrifice of thanksgiving” was a sacrifice of unleavened cakes. The Hebrew zawbach means “sacrifice, to slaughter for sacrifice, to kill, offer, slay” (Strong’s Concordance).  

Although Christ freed us from the law (and of the necessity of making sacrifices of unleavened cakes), I believe we are still to offer our “sacrifice of thanksgiving.” Sometimes our praise and thankfulness really does feel like a slaughter. We have to let Christ come in and kill our old man that is full of self-righteousness, indignation, and anger: “Why am I sick? I don’t deserve this!” or “You are a really nice doctor, but I’d rather be seeing my mom!” It is when we feel least like being thankful that we probably need it (and need the attitude adjustment) the most.

My prayer is that I can continue to offer my sacrifice of praise and sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord. He is worthy of our praise!