Give Thanks In All Circumstances

As we all know, 2020 has been a very difficult year for people in Sidney and Cheyenne County, as well as the rest of the world. Here in the United States, the Covid pandemic, along with economic loss, social upheaval and political chaos have caused great distress.

Many people are dealing with discouragement and even depression. However, in times like these, Christians are still encouraged by the Scriptures to give thanks to the God who loves us and never leaves us.

In the New Testament the Apostle Paul reminded us to “be joyful always; pray continually; and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Giving thanks to God in all circumstances, including the most difficult ones, is an act of faith. It is the kind of persevering faith the Lord wants to grow in our lives. It is evidence that we are maturing in our relationship with him.

St. Paul also challenged us to replace our anxieties in life with prayer, accompanied by thanksgiving to God. He wrote: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5-7) As we prayerfully turn to the Lord with our concerns, and thank him in advance for his answers, he can replace anxiety in our hearts and minds with his peace.

Obviously, it can be difficult to express this kind of thankfulness in times of hardship. However, there are many examples of men and women of faith who have done so over the centuries, and found the peace that God promised.

For example, world history includes what was known as the Thirty Years War in Europe. It was a devastating war that lasted from 1618 to 1648, and was fought primarily in and around Germany. It was at the beginning of that time period that a Lutheran minister named Martin Rinkart became the pastor of a church in his home town of Eilenberg, Germany. For the next thirty years, Pastor Rinkart and the people of his church and community had to endure the horrors and hardships of a war which claimed the lives of millions of people in Europe.

To make matters worse, a terrible plague, worse than Covid 19, struck the continent and his community in 1637, which eventually resulted in Rinkart being the only pastor left alive in town. It was said that he would conduct as many as forty to fifty funerals each day, and helped bury almost 5000 people. He even had to bury his own wife who also perished in the plague.

And yet, in the middle of those terrible thirty years, during a time of unimaginable suffering and grief, Martin Rinkart wrote a powerful poem of praise to God. He expressed his enduring faith in words which eventually became the lyrics of this well known Thanksgiving hymn:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices

Who wondrous things has done, in whom His world rejoices

Who from our mother’s arms, has blessed us on our way

With countless gift of love, and still is ours today.

Oh may this bounteous God, through all our life be near us

With ever joyful hearts, and blessed peace to cheer us

And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed

And free us from all ills, in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God, the Father now be given

The Son and Him who reigns, with them in highest heaven

The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

At this Thanksgiving time, 400 years later, let us also give thanks to God in all circumstances here in Cheyenne County.

Pastor Doug Birky

Evangelical Free Church