Always time for Thanksgiving

 “And I -- with a voice of thanksgiving -- I sacrifice to Thee, that which I have vowed I complete, Salvation [is] of Jehovah.” [Jonah 2:9]

Today, the world around us can be overwhelming, stymieing, frightening. Even if we take our eyes off the planet, off the global collection of countries, off the nation we live in, off the community, off the neighborhood all the way down to our own family, it is sometimes more than people can bear. Even people of faith, with faith, can be impeded when trying to conjure or find solutions to problems. For those who are of the Christian faith we know there are ‘times’ in scripture where people have faced stultifying situations, circumstances, events and truly had nowhere to turn but to their GOD in prayer.

This post deals with ‘thanksgiving’. We can do that in joyous times, in stressful times, incidental times or just out of the abundance of our heart. Yet, it is the intermediate position we can fall to when we haven’t reached the point of speechlessness, of confusion of mind or for no reason whatsoever but the driving need to say ‘thank you’. In the world of habitual thanksgiving it becomes the standard form of intimate communication with our CREATOR. It flows from our mind, off our tongues, out of our hearts and our spirit and from the sole of our soul sometimes in breathless awe; sometimes from an eruption of unbelievable magnitude. Always, however, acceptable in the mere mundaneness of momentary life. Thanksgiving, thank you, gratitude, all emotions we can feel from stimuli around us or just because our heart, soul or spirit move us to utter it.

Jonah was in a predicament to be sure. He was faced with some really undeniable facts; his actions [or inactions on his part] had consequences. He quickly identified where he went wrong. He pled his case, humbly, as evidenced in the words above. He tempered his voice, his being, to the circumstances of his life with ‘thanksgiving’. Remember, this did not happen after he left the belly of the beast but prior to. Think about that, faced with horrid crisis/crises -- concentrating on giving thanks to GOD could be a way to ultimately deal with the event.

Take heart, when all else fails we are promised the bottom line in those times when we are confounded beyond words, beyond concentration in prayer even if we but close our eyes and bow our muddled heads there is a miraculous union of SPIRIT and spirit: “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” [Romans 8]

May we find ourselves here in this place, prayer wise, many times. While we may think 'Thank you!' the more times we can BE thankful the better. Blessings are more times unknown to us...be thankful for the manifold blessings you are utterly unaware of but know exists.