Give Thanks … Even When You’re Attacked

 “He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.”
– Daniel 6:27

Two friends met on the street one day. One looked really sad, so his friend asked, “What has the world done to you, my old friend?” The sad fellow said, “Three weeks ago, my uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars. And two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died and left me eighty-five thousand dollars, free and clear.”

His friend responded: “Wow! That’s a lot of money. Sounds to me like you’ve been very blessed.” But the first man responded, “You don’t understand! Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million from her.”

Now the man’s friend was really confused. He asked, “Then why do you look so glum?”

He responded: “Because this week—I haven’t gotten anything!”

Being thankful is a choice. You can choose to be grateful for the quarter million dollars God blessed you with last week, or you can choose to gripe and complain about the hundred bucks He didn’t give you this week. Being thankful is a command of Scripture. But like every other command, it requires a conscious choice. And in one of the most famous stories in the Bible, Daniel shows us how to be thankful—even when we’re under attack.

By Daniel 6, Daniel was a respected leader who had served under a series of Babylonian kings. When Babylon was overthrown by Persia, King Darius came into power. Darius appointed 120 satraps, or governors, to rule throughout the kingdom. He also appointed three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. Verse 3 tells us, “Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps … that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” The other two administrators and the satraps were deeply jealous—and they wanted him dead.

So, they cooked up a law to trap Daniel. They couldn’t find any flaws in his conduct, so their only shot was to scheme up something religious. They knew Daniel was a man of prayer. Every day, three times a day, he went to his upstairs room, opened the windows and knelt to pray and give thanks to God. So, the two other administrators and some of the satraps went to the king and flattered Darius as they proposed an order: “Anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except for you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions’ den” (v.7). Somehow, King Darius fell for it, and he put the decree in writing.

What did Daniel do after he learned about the law aimed squarely at his faith in the One True God? He could have gone into hiding for a month. He could have closed his windows and prayed silently. But he didn’t. Daniel went home, and “three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (v. 10). Because Daniel was so consistent, his enemies easily caught him red-handed.

When they reported him, King Darius was devastated—but his hands were tied, because a law of the Persians could never be revoked. Even as Daniel was tossed him the lions’ den, Darius said: “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” (v. 16). The ONLY way Daniel wouldn’t be mauled to death would be if His God worked a miracle and closed the mouths of the hungry lions.

We know how the story turns out. At sunrise, the king rushed to the lions’ den. When he called down into the pit, Daniel answered: “My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight” (v. 22). And King Darius issues a decree that contains one of the most beautifully concise descriptions of God in the whole OT: “He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end. He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

I’d like to offer you three steps from Daniel 6 to help you stay thankful when you’re under attack:

Step #1: Keep calm, and take your concerns to God (v. 10). When Daniel first found out that his critics had set a trap that would likely get him killed, he didn’t blow a gasket. He didn’t fly off in a rage. He didn’t hunt down his accusers and give them a piece of his mind. He didn’t even post a rant on Facebook. He simply went home and carved out some one-on-one time with God.

Step #2: Remember that God hasn’t changed (v. 10). So, give thanks to God, just as you’ve done before. When you are criticized, God is no less worthy of your praise and thanks than He was before you were criticized. There’s nothing your critics can say or do that changes who God is. God is good. God is just. God is compassionate. God is a faithful Provider. And He is always, always worthy of your thanks and praise.

Step #3: As long as you’re not doing it in a self-serving way, express your thankfulness to God openly. Notice that Daniel didn’t close his mouth OR his windows when he was commanded to stop giving thanks to God. He prayed with his windows open BEFORE the law was passed, and he prayed with his windows open AFTER the law was passed. And when he was sitting in the lions’ den and Darius asked if he was okay, he took the opportunity to give thanks to God again in earshot of the king and everyone else who was listening.

I think it’s a shame when we have a lot to thank God for, and we keep it to ourselves. Let’s not do that! Let’s be very vocal expressing our thanks to God.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Pastor Dane’s latest book (“Called to Persevere: One Man’s Journey to Overcome Pain, Disease and Disappointment with God”) is NOW available at Amazon. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc or www.Called2Persevere.com.

Give Thanks … Even When You’re Depressed

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
– Job 1:20-21 

In her best-selling book, “The Hiding Place,” Corrie ten Boom tells the story of how she and her family resisted the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands during World War II. When the Nazi Gestapo began rounding up Jews in Amsterdam and sending them to concentration camps, Corrie and her family risked their lives by helping Jews hide and escape. During the first four years of the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, it’s estimated that Corrie ten Boom and her family helped save the lives of 800 Jews.

But on February 28, 1944, the German secret police raided Corrie’s house, where she was hiding six Jews and resistance workers. The Gestapo didn’t find the hidden Jews, but they arrested Corrie and several other family members. Eventually Corrie and her older sister Betsie were transferred to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany, where they were disgusted to find that their barracks were infested with fleas. When Corrie began to complain, Betsie insisted that they give thanks instead, quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  

Corrie finally joined her sister in thanking God for the fleas. The two of them began hosting evening Bible studies for their fellow prisoners, and many women accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. To their surprise, the camp guards never disrupted those evening studies, and they never came to their barracks to harass or rape the women. After several months, Corrie realized the very fleas she had so despised had actually been a blessing. God had sent the fleas to keep away the cruel guards and pave the way for many prisoners to find hope and salvation in Christ.

If fleas in a concentration camp are actually a blessing from God, which blessings might you and I have missed because we’ve mistakenly seen them as a curse? In the Bible, Job is the perfect example of how to be thankful—even when we’re grieving and depressed.

According to Job 1:1, “Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” He was also wealthy and devoted to the large family God had blessed him with. But Satan wasn’t buying it. He challenged God: “What do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what’” (v.11). Well, God gave Satan free rein to do his worst, and that’s exactly what the devil did. In the space of a few hours, Job’s sheep were burnt to a crisp in a freak lightning storm, the rest of his herds were stolen by raiders, and his 10 sons and daughters were all killed when a dust storm caused the house where they were eating to collapse on them.

Job was grief-stricken. His first reaction was to do what was customary in his culture when someone was overcome with sadness. He tore his robe and shaved his head. But what he did next is remarkable: “He fell to the ground in worship and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised’” (vs. 20-21). And as chapter 1 draws to a close, the writer of Job offers this beautiful commentary: “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (v. 22). Job sank into a deep depression. But still, somehow, he was thankful.

When we’re grieving and slipping into depression, we can pull these three steps right from Job 1:21:

Step #1: Look BACK. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb.” Job urges us to focus on God’s past blessings. When you and I are depressed, our tendency is to have tunnel vision. We become consumed with the thoughts of today’s misery. So, like Job, we must pull off the blinders and remember that we came into this world with nothing. Everything we own has been a good and gracious gift from God: our clothing, food, jobs, our homes.

Step #2: Look AHEAD. “Naked I will depart.” When we’re down in the dumps because our water heater is busted, our identity was stolen, or our car was repossessed, we need to remember that when we die, we won’t be able to take it with us anyway. If you are experiencing depression because something you value has been taken from you, here is the perspective that can help you be thank-full: “God gave it to me in the first place, and sooner or later He was going to pass it on to someone else. So, I’m going to thank God for the time that I had it. I was never the owner. I was simply the manager of that item for a short time. Thank you, Jesus!”

Step #3: Look UP. “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” When you’re depressed, the more you look up to God, the better off you’ll be. Satan was convinced that when all Job’s stuff was taken from him, he would curse God and die. But Job wasn’t duped by the father of lies. Instead of cursing God, Job “fell to the ground in worship…. Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”

May the same be said of you and me when we find ourselves in the pit of grief and despair. While most people are blaming God, resenting God and turning their backs on God, let’s worship and praise God. And through it all, let’s make sure we do not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. In the end, it will be crystal clear to everyone that God is faithful, God is just, and God IS at work for our good.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Pastor Dane’s latest book (Called to Persevere: One Man’s Journey to Overcome Pain, Disease and Disappointment with God) is NOW available at Amazon. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc or www.Called2Persevere.com.

Christmas at the Movies: Home Alone

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” – Isaiah 53:6

For the Christmas season this year, our church is having some fun by taking a look at a few favorite holiday movies. Our attenders voted on their favorite Christmas films, and my job is to find a lesson from God’s word that applies to each of them. First up, we highlighted the movie that tied for third place in our congregation’s vote. Released in 1990, for 28 years it held the record as the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time. The movie? “Home Alone.”

The film tells the story of the 8-year-old troublemaker Kevin McCallister, who is accidentally left home alone while the rest of his family flies to Paris for Christmas vacation. At the beginning of this movie, let’s just say it: Kevin is a spoiled brat. He starts out by complaining, “Why do I always get treated like scum?” Through his actions, he answers his own question pretty fast. He calls his mom a “dummy.” Then he tells her, “I don’t want to see you again for the rest of my whole life.” And then he tells his whole family, “I hope I never see any of you jerks again.”

In short, Kevin is behaving like a little jerk, lashing out in anger, disrespecting his parents and rebelling against their authority. And do you know who Kevin reminds me of? He reminds me of you and me. Isaiah 53:6 comes to mind: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Eight-year old Kevin, like you and me, is a little sheep that went astray; like you and me, he’s turned to his own way. In the movie, Kevin’s mom is the unappreciated dumping ground for his bad behavior. In real life, Jesus Christ is the unappreciated dumping ground for ours. 

Eventually young Kevin is banished to the attic, thinking to himself, “I wish they would all just disappear.” Then overnight, a storm rolls in and the power goes out, causing everyone’s alarm clocks to stop working. The next morning Kevin’s family flies out the door to catch their plane while Kevin sleeps like a baby in the attic. Later Kevin wakes up, casually walks downstairs, and is surprised to discover the whole house is empty. He decides his wish caused some kind of Christmas miracle, and he gloats: “I made my family disappear!”

Kevin wastes no time jumping on his parents’ bed while shoving popcorn in his mouth. He runs around the house like a crazy man. He eats whatever he wants. He watches whatever “rubbish” he wants to on TV. To Kevin, being home alone is a dream come true! He feels so free!

Let me ask: Why do you and I sin? Why do we rebel against God’s laws and ignore His commands? Because it’s fun, right? Don’t deny it: Sin can be a LOT of fun. When you’re in the moment, getting drunk can be fun. Gossiping can be fun. Having premarital sex or an affair can be fun. But the fun of sin is short-lived, isn’t it? As Paul writes in Romans, 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.” In other words, sin might be fun in the moment, but it’ll end up killing you.

For the first 24 hours or so that Kevin is home alone, he has a blast. He can say anything he wants. He can do anything he wants. But after the first day, it starts to get old … especially when he finds himself in the crosshairs of two burglars who wanted to loot his house while his parents are gone. Kevin thought life with his family was just horrible. But within about 48 hours he discovers the truth: Life WITHOUT his family was what was truly horrible.

Can’t we say the same about life without Jesus? Life without Jesus ends up being really horrible. Sin seems fun for a while, but it never really satisfies us for any length of time. Only Jesus satisfies. He alone is the living water who quenches our spiritual thirst. He alone is the bread of life who answers our soul’s hunger for meaning and purpose. Only Jesus satisfies.

By Christmas Eve, Kevin is feeling pretty empty. Being home alone isn’t working out the way he imagined. And as he walks home in the dark, he passes a church and goes inside. I’m not sure we can say that Kevin has a “religious experience,” but this short church visit becomes a defining moment in Kevin’s life. As he leaves the chapel, he’s determined to stand up to the burglars and fight for his home. And even though he never says so, his wish has changed. Instead of wishing his family would disappear, he wishes they’d come back—especially the mom he dumped on just a few days earlier. And about 12 hours later (with two crooks severely beaten up and on their way to jail), Kevin’s wish comes true.

By the time his family comes home, Kevin has come to his senses. He realizes that he unfairly dumped on his mom. Deep down he loves her. He needs her. And Christmas without her is empty. I hope and pray that you’ve come to the same conclusion about your family. At times, you’ve taken your parents, your spouse or your kids for granted, and you’ve unfairly dumped on them. But deep down you realize you love them; that Christmas without your family is empty.

And Christmas without Jesus Christ is even more empty. We’ve taken Jesus for granted and dumped on him far too often. But the truth is: I need Jesus Christ in my Christmas celebration. You need Jesus Christ in your Christmas celebration. In fact, not only is Christmas empty without him—LIFE is empty without him. So, open your heart’s door and invite him back home this Christmas season. In the long-run, it’s no fun being home alone without Jesus at Christmas.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Join us for our holiday message series, “Christmas at the Movies,” Sundays at 10 a.m. at the new Dr. Ralph Baker School in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.