The Therapy of Thankfulness. . . In the Thick of Things
A Reading from Roger Ellsworth
And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves.
Acts 27:33-36
In Acts 27 we find the Apostle Paul “in the thick of things.” You know what I mean by the thick of things: serious trouble or dire circumstances! I wonder if the phrase is an offshoot of “the thick of battle,” which refers to that part of battle in which the heaviest fighting occurs.
But back to Paul; a prisoner of the Roman government, he was sailing to Rome to stand trial before Caesar (Acts 26:32). The charge leveled against him was sedition, that is, the inciting of rebellion against the government (Acts 24:5-6).
That would seem to be trouble enough. But Paul’s trouble was only beginning. His ship encountered a “tempestuous head wind,” which was called “Euroclydon,” that is, a northeasterly wind.
This storm was so severe, that Luke, the author of Acts, says: “… we were exceedingly tempest-tossed” (v. 18), and “… no small tempest beat on us” (v. 20).
To make things worse, this storm continued for several days, two weeks to be exact! (v. 33).
The sailors had given up all hope. But in the midst of their despair, Paul came to offer encouragement and hope. One of the ways in which he did this was by giving them food.
Now here is a remarkable thing—in that setting of crisis, fear, confusion and exhaustion, Paul did not merely offer food. He first “gave thanks to God in the presence of them all” (v. 35).
If there has ever been a time in which the giving of thanks might seem to be out of place, this was it!
Paul could have said: “The men are preoccupied with the storm. There is no point in giving thanks.” Or he could have said: “The men are in no mood to have religion crammed down their throats.” Or he could have said: “The men will think I am crazy to thank God for food with this storm going on. Why thank God for the food when He won’t stop the storm?”
But Paul expressed thanks just the same. It was a situation that would seem to call for bitterness, anger and skepticism, but Paul used it as an occasion for thanksgiving.
Why did he do it? Some would say it was mere force of habit, that Paul was observing his routine without thinking. That won’t work. Paul was far too thoughtful, far too devoted to Christ, and far too genuine than to do this out of habit. This was a sincere expression of worship to God.
By doing this, Paul was declaring his conviction that God is with us in every situation. There would be no need to pray if God were not there to hear the prayer.
Paul was also registering his firm belief that every good thing comes from God, even something as common as food, and that we owe thanks to Him. We must be thankful for the big things (v. 24), but we must not think that we exhaust our responsibility in so doing. We must also be thankful for the small things. By the way, if we are always thankful for small blessings, we will never fail to be thankful for large blessings.
Paul was also showing his companions that we are blessed even while we are burdened.
And what resulted from Paul’s simple act of thanksgiving? Luke says “… they were all encouraged …” (v. 36).
Thankfulness never fails to leave a favorable impression. Sourness also leaves an impression but never a favorable one.
So let’s make up our minds that we can go through life humbly grateful or grumbly hateful, and let’s make it our business to choose the former.
With all his difficulties Paul was a grateful man. Do you wonder what he would say if he were asked to name the thing for which he was most grateful? I think he would say: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 8:9). That gift, of course, is Christ and the eternal life we can receive through Him.
Be grateful for all God’s gifts, and don’t ever fail to be grateful for the greatest of His gifts.
