More Thankful, Less Anxious

We would beg our dad to skip it this year. “Do we really have to name something we’re thankful for?” Can’t we just enjoy our food? Why must Dad make us do this?

Why would Dad have us name something we are thankful for? There are many reasons. Here’s one:

God calls us to thanksgiving as an antidote to anxiety.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

I memorized this verse years ago and have used it to encourage others, but that doesn’t mean that I have mastered it. I need this exhortation regularly and have recently embraced it in a season of increased anxiety.

I have been especially anxious about money. Our team leader asked us to spend a day in prayer for the upcoming season of ministry, but I could not focus. The sound of my financial anxiety was deafening, blocking the pathways of prayer. However, I realized that money was exactly what God wanted me to pray about and trust him with.

Distractions during prayer often signal anxiety that we must confess. What should have happened months earlier happened that day, albeit after several hours of feeling sorry for myself. I began to listen to my Father. “My child,” he said, “hypotheticals are paralyzing you. What is true?” As I yielded to his word, gratitude won the day. What is true is that God is good and has provided more than we need time and time again. Satan would prefer me to forget and wallow in anxiety, but God graciously reminded me of specific instances of his generosity and provoked thanksgiving.

When I began to pray about upcoming ministry, the Father showed me that I was harboring anxiety there as well. Ministry has been disheartening. People haven’t been coming to church. Potential leaders have left or disqualified themselves. What if it gets worse? My thoughts spiraled. Then the Father reminded me of my pre-field fear that we would never have a convert or a church and of all that he has done since. “Will you be thankful and trust me?” he asked. God has saved many and has built his church in a spiritually desolate place! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving be to our God forever and ever! O Father, don’t let me leave this posture of gratitude.

There is a time for expressing pain and confusion. Our Father welcomes honest lament. Yet he wants us to flee from anxiety, and thanksgiving is a vehicle he provides.

We don’t always understand what God is doing, but we know what He has done in Christ. We have much evidence of His specific goodness toward us. He cares enough to call us to gratitude. Let us be thankful, and may our thanksgiving disarm our anxiety and lead us to the peace of God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

This year, my kids might hope that I skip our tradition of naming something we are thankful for, but no matter how much they groan, I will not neglect it. Dad cares, and he knows best.