A Contented Heart Enjoys a Continual Feast

I invite you to open your Bibles to Proverbs 15:15. It says, "All the days of the afflicted are difficult." Have you experienced this? When you feel afflicted—wow—all the days are difficult, aren’t they? 15:15: "But the contented heart has a continual feast."

Father, we thank You, Lord, that You invite us to a feast. Thank You, Lord, that Your feast is not far away; we do not have to pay, Father, and we do not have to look for a restaurant somewhere else. Thank You that the feast You offer us is here, within our reach every day, continually. I ask You to open our hearts. I ask You, Good Shepherd, to speak to me today and to my people, Lord, so that we may hear Your Voice, and Father, so that what we speak about today, Lord, may become a reality not only in happy moments, but especially in the hard moments that those of us speaking today may experience. I ask You this in the Name of Jesus, amen and amen.

My son Noah is six years old, right? Poor kid—I confess all his sins here in the Congregation from the pulpit. And I have a four-year-old daughter, and one night she asked me, "Daddy, am I going to have a happy day tomorrow? Is tomorrow going to be a happy day?" And I told her, "That depends on you. You are the one who will decide whether tomorrow will be a happy day or a miserable day; it is your decision." The thing is, I cannot predict what will happen tomorrow—whether the teacher will, I don’t know, scold you, whether you will do poorly on a test, or whether the children might not want to play with you on the playground. I cannot control all of that for you, but there is one thing that is under your control, and that is your heart.

The Word of God says that all the days of the afflicted, of the oppressed, are difficult, but the contented or grateful heart has a continual feast. Everything is there: there is more to eat, more doughnuts. All day, every day, the contented heart is enjoying the fragrances we have today, these little pastries that are here reminding us of His existence, right? Every day, this is available to us in the Spirit.

I don’t know whether you have seen a movie called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, right? There are two versions: an old version that is good and a new version that is bad, so there you have my recommendation. Johnny Depp is—I don’t know—I cannot even look at him; he is strange. But the Gene Wilder one from nineteen-sixty-something was a good movie.

It is about the owner of a chocolate factory, right? He made all kinds of chocolates, and he made all kinds of special chocolates. And he had a candy that he called the Everlasting Gum Stopper, the Gum Stopper that lasts forever. It is a piece of gum you can chew, and different flavors come out, right? You are eating it: at first it starts out like rice and beans, and then comes a little mango, then an arepa, then corn on the cob with who knows what, then a tortilla, and then, for dessert—forget about it—a little flan and another dessert. The flavors keep coming out of this gum, and it never gets old.

Then, when you are satisfied with all the flavors and the food has gone into you, you take it out, put it away very carefully, and chew it again later, and it lasts forever. But you know what? Our God has offered us an everlasting Gum Stopper through which we can enjoy a continual feast, yet most of us go emotionally and spiritually hungry instead of eating from this feast. The Lord’s everlasting Gum Stopper, the magic gum I am talking about today, can be summed up in one word—or two in Spanish, or three: thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, a contented heart, right? The Word says in Psalm 23, "You prepare a table before me." When things are lovely and good? No. "You prepare a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me." It is in the struggle, when there is war outside and I do not know where my help comes from, but inside there is a spiritual refuge and a table set for me, and I can eat from this table.

The thing is, we do not have to be victims of those who trouble us, because there is a table set before us. A contented, grateful heart has a continual feast, meals that are always available. We are not victims. I told my son Noah, "Tomorrow your happiness depends on you. It does not depend on me, your friends, or your teachers; it depends on you. What are you going to decide?"

Do you know what he answered me? He said, "Daddy, I’m not sure which one I’m going to choose." The poor kid is very honest about his heart. The Lord’s command in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 is: "Give thanks in everything, for this is the Will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

Now I want to clarify something before saying more. I do not believe this verse means that we have to thank God for everything, okay? I want to be clear about that. Not everything that happens in the world—God is not giving thanks for the things, for the sin that is committed. The definition of sin is something that is far from the Will of God. God does not want it. There is evil in the world, there is sin in the world, and there is injustice. We should not thank God for injustice, for evil, or for people’s suffering.

We pray, "May Your Kingdom come; may Your Will be done here on Earth as it is in heaven. May this world change to become more like what You desire." We do not have to give thanks for every circumstance, but we do have to give thanks in every circumstance, knowing that despite everything, You prepare a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me.

We take it as though it were medicine, giving thanks to God, because many times we do not want to give thanks. What do we want to do? We want to complain. What do people do at work, right? When they sit with everyone else, how do they pass the time? By saying, "Oh, I am so grateful for this job; there are so many people in the world who do not have jobs." That is how people talk during the coffee break. "Oh, how wonderful that we all have this job. Thank God for a boss who has given us this opportunity and that there is a little money coming in."

They give thanks for their coworkers: "Oh, how good it is that we are all here together, and I know you all have your quirks, but that is all right; I give thanks." They fill their time at work by giving thanks to God. In traffic, what do people do in Boston traffic? "Oh Lord, thank You that I have this car, that I can get on a bus that takes me where I need to go. Oh Lord, You are so good." The rule of humanity is to complain.

You can be at Disneyland and still complain about something, right? Have you seen that? You take the children to an amusement park; they have candy, rides, and everything is fine—and what happens? They complain because they do not have, I don’t know, somebody else’s candy: "Oh, what a long line!" You are at Disneyland! You can be buying ice cream in the summer and complaining to the young man. That is the rule of life: complaining.

We have to practice gratitude as though it were physical exercise. Muscles—ooh! It hurts; I do not want to do it. I force myself to do it because, by doing it, it becomes a habit of life, the muscles of gratitude grow stronger, and I learn to eat from the continual feast that is before me.

It is like what doctors who are very interested in nutrition nowadays call—have you heard of superfoods? Superfoods. I am no expert on that, but others are. You search the Internet for superfoods, right? Super-healthy foods. It will give you a whole list of foods that have combinations of vitamins and proteins and who knows what else—superfoods, which are foods that, if you eat a lot of them, make your body feel good. Of course, rice and beans and everything else do too; there is no need to go crazy over those superfoods either, right?

You know, my four-year-old daughter grew up in a daycare run by people from Baní, right, in Matapán? And when she eats downstairs at mealtimes, she eats like never before, as if to say, "Oh, real food at last! My mommy and daddy starve me, but finally! That Japanese, gringo food—no!" They have ruined her forever for me. (Laughter.) And that is what she is into, right?

But gratitude is a superfood with so many vitamins. You know, I like books in bookstores that offer life advice about how to improve your life, right? I like them. They are good books containing strategies for living—The 7 Habits of Success and this and that, right? But you know what? The best self-help book you will ever read is the Bible, and one of the best pieces of self-help advice is gratitude, thanksgiving. It is not complicated, and it heals you of a multitude of ailments.

You know, I am going to make promises that, if I were making them about a medicine, you would take it in an instant, right? Thanksgiving can cure anxiety—did you know that? Worry? Some people worry too much. They are worried: "Oh, what is going to happen?" You imagine the worst, right? And you keep thinking the worst; and if it does not happen, you say, "Well, thank goodness I was worried—maybe that prevented it." And you always live with the burden of worry and anxiety, and it becomes a habit of life.

The Word says, "Be anxious for nothing, but let your requests be made known before God in every prayer and supplication." With what? With thanksgiving. There is a song the children sing: "Don’t worry, just pray." Do not worry; just pray. But it is not prayer alone, because a person can pray while complaining. There is nothing wrong with that. The Psalms are full of prayers of complaint; they are called Laments: "Lord, where are You? Why? How long?" There is nothing wrong with venting your pain to God; you can do that, okay? But please, let us not stay there. Supplication mixed with thanksgiving.

"Lord, how long? I do not understand. Help me! I know that You are my helper. Thank You because, in the midst of this struggle, You are with me; Your rod and Your staff encourage me." And after the prayer, perhaps you return to the complaint: "Oh Lord, but I do not want this or that—but Lord, thank You."

The Psalms are full of that: there is complaint and then thanksgiving, worship, complaint, thanksgiving—and it almost always ends in victory. So thanksgiving in everything, not for everything but in everything, can cure you of anxiety and worry. Many of us are addicted to worry, right? Super-addicted, right?

I am Italian. We Italians know how to worry, especially the mothers and grandmothers. But I love my mommy, who does not understand Spanish, so I am fine. (Laughter.) But worry. You know what? Thanksgiving is a beauty treatment; it is a beauty treatment. I do not know whether anyone here spends money on creams. I am convinced that hairdressers, the people who work in salons, are the most anointed missionaries in our society, right? Because people confess to you and not to me. Ah, amen, there it is—God uses male and female hairdressers.

Well, you know what? The Word says, "A contented heart makes the face beautiful." Add a little thanksgiving, and you will see: there is a beauty that shines, right? It says that "a peaceful heart," because of thanksgiving, "is life to the flesh, but envy rots the bones." Envy is a lack of gratitude, right? I am not grateful for what I have; I want what he or she has. Envy. Rot in the bones—it does something to you; it rocks your bones, as they say in English. But there is something that makes the face beautiful.

I know people—and surely you do too—who have suffered greatly, and perhaps they are not movie stars, but there is a beauty that shines from them. It may be an elderly woman—have you seen ninety-year-old women and men? There is a majesty that shines from their faces because they have learned to eat the magical food of thanksgiving and trust in the Lord.

Healthy relationships—who does not want healthy relationships? But it is not easy to please an ungrateful person, right? I don’t know, perhaps you are one of those people for whom "nothing’s good enough"—nothing is enough. And sisters, I am nobody to give advice, but sister, if you want to make your husband feel like a million dollars, be grateful for him. Perhaps instead of emphasizing what he did not do, emphasize what he did well.

"Thank you, my love; you removed the dead insects from the window. Thank you, my love; you are my hero. Thank you." And he thinks, "Oh, I want to do this again. I am going to clean up more insects," right? Because a man needs to feel that what he does is worthwhile. Please be grateful.

Men, be grateful for the woman God has given you, unlike Adam, who after his sin wanted to complain: "It is the woman You gave me who made me sin." It is the woman You gave me. "Thank You, Lord; to me she is my princess, she is my everything." Give thanks to God for them. Healthy relationships.

The apostle Paul models this in the Book of Philippians, right? I don’t know whether you have read the beginning of the Book of Philippians. Writing from prison, by the way, he says, "I thank my God whenever I remember you"—every time I think of you, I thank God—"in all my prayers, making supplication with joy for all of you." He was always saying, "Lord, thank You for these people You have given me."

He was not a lone ranger who said, "Oh no, I am the apostle Paul; I do not need anyone." He was grateful for his fellow workers. I encourage you every day to think about the people around you, to be grateful for them, and to express it to them. Children need to hear that, as do coworkers and leaders, of course—but everyone needs to hear from you that you value them. Healthy relationships are filled with thanksgiving. Pleasure.

Do you want to enjoy life? Do you want to savor and enjoy life’s moments? Thanksgiving. Let me tell you about the best meal I have ever eaten in my life—except for all the food I have eaten at home with my wife—but apart from all that, this meal was, at the time, the best meal.

I was at Lake Atitlán in the country of Guatemala—any Guatemalans here? Oh, amen, amen, Guatemalan, amen, okay—Lake Atitlán, a beautiful lake with volcanoes all around it. I stayed for a while with a young indigenous man; they spoke Tz’utujil there, right? And they had chickens and everything, and I lived with them for a few days. It was very strange for them. I arrived at the house with my friend, and his sister, a thirty-year-old young woman, came running out thinking, “What does this gringo want here with us? Is he from the FBI or something? We don’t know.” But I went in, they welcomed me, and one day they gave me a dragon fruit. As I was eating this dragon fruit, which is a purple fruit with lots of seeds—I was eating that dragon fruit—and I was saying, “This is delicious, sister! I’ve never eaten a fruit like this.” And the woman, speaking to me in Tz’utujil through an interpreter, said, “I only gave you a dragon fruit, young man. What is it? What’s your problem?” Oh, but it was the best fruit in the world.

It was a time in my life when I was traveling, very grateful to God for everything He gave me, taking time to enjoy the moments, the sun, the air, new countries, the smells of a new country. I visited many countries, and it was a time in my life when I was very grateful to God for every detail.

And I remember one morning, this woman, who would get up at five in the morning to grind the dough for the tortillas—starting at five in the morning, there she was, grinding, grinding, grinding. My friend and I came back from church, and his mother had a stack, a mountain of tortillas, scrambled eggs, and coffee from a coffeemaker she had, and that was breakfast. It was the best breakfast of my life. As I ate, I could savor those tortillas—and I can still savor them—there is nothing like that, my goodness! And those unprocessed eggs, right? From their own home, right? As I ate, they were the best tortillas and scrambled eggs of my life. A grateful heart, brothers and sisters, right?

A person can go to five-star restaurants and be miserable, because all the days of the afflicted are miserable if you have an afflicted heart. But a grateful and contented heart can be eating the simplest little thing and say, “Oh, thank You, Lord. It is a banquet for You. How delicious, how delicious!” Joy—enjoying, savoring, tasting life.

If you want to be rich—prosperity, right?—the Word says, “God loves a cheerful giver.” Sowing generously, reaping generously, right? It generates good vibes—hehe, forgive me—which results in blessing. You become a magnet for blessing. Success—success not through magic, but success because thanksgiving gives you a persevering heart. You do not give up because you are grateful to the God who is with you, and you know that He is also out ahead of you, right?

Jesus Himself—how was He able to endure the cross and win the victory? The Word says, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and after He had gone through it, He sat down at the right hand of the Father.” Because of the joy ahead of us, a grateful heart gives you strength to keep moving forward, because you know there is joy ahead. “I know the plans I have, the thoughts I have toward you, says the Lord: thoughts of good and not of evil, thoughts to give you the future you hope for.”

If we know that—I thank You because, God, You have good thoughts toward me—I can fight today because I know it is not in vain. There is a God who is with me. Thanksgiving and success; the anointing of God is released when there is thanksgiving.

Before breaking the loaves and the fish and multiplying them among the crowd, what did Jesus do? He gave thanks. Before raising Lazarus from the tomb, what did Jesus do? “I thank You, God, that You always hear Me.” Thanks—and the blessing is released because I thank You, God, that You are good and powerful, and You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Thanksgiving strengthens faith and releases blessing in life.

This truly is a continual feast. In contrast, a lack of gratitude is a lever for Satan in your life. It is an entrance; it is a button, right, that Satan can press to open the door to sin in your life. I heard something very wise from a sister who preached one day at the English-language service: “If you look behind any sin, you will find some element of ingratitude.” If there is sin, ingratitude is there at some point.

If you look at the prodigal son, right? Do you know the story of the prodigal son? What does he say to his father? He is in a beautiful home with his father, and he says, “Give me what belongs to me,” and he spends it all. Why? He was ungrateful, unappreciative of what he had; he wanted something different. But do you know that he is not the only one? His older brother—do you remember him in the story? The one who is there and gets angry when a celebration is held for his brother—what does he say to his father? “I have always served you; I have never disobeyed your commandments, and you have never given me a celebration!”

And the father says, “My son, everything I have is yours, and you are always with me. We had to celebrate because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.” Ingratitude caused one of them to leave the house, but it also caused the one who stayed in the house to be miserable. Ingratitude can motivate you to leave the house of God and look for something better, but it can also make you miserable inside the house of God because, “Oh, I don’t know; I don’t like it.” The afflicted are constantly miserable. It is a serious matter.

The Ten Commandments, right, devote one commandment to this—and sometimes it is divided into two: do not covet. Do not covet what? Your neighbor’s wife, or your neighbor’s ox, or your neighbor’s car, or whatever else; you must not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. Why? Because covetousness—my ingratitude for what I have and my desire for what the other person has—motivates me to rebel against God. It is a lever for Satan in a person’s life.

I want you to think about this: What was humanity’s first sin? Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, and Satan, the greatest propagandist there is, made them feel dissatisfied with the Garden of Eden. Dissatisfaction with the Garden of Eden—he made them feel as though they were missing something, right? “Oh, but if you eat the fruit, you will become like God.”

You know, what is the advertising we see on television and hear on the radio trying to do? Make you feel dissatisfied with what you have so that you will buy what they are selling, right? Satan is a salesman.

I was talking about that in a discipleship class, and in the class I have an executive from an advertising company. (Laughs.) She really liked it and said, “You’re right; I don’t want to be like that.” It was very funny, but advertising is about making you feel dissatisfied. Advertising does not want you to be grateful for what you have, because if you are content with what you have, they are not going to make money on Black Friday. (Laughter.) And if you buy something on Black Friday, that is fine. I may buy something myself, so buying something on Black Friday is not a sin. But there is a problem if I allow myself to be deceived by Satan’s lies and feel incomplete if I do not have more.

The people of Israel—do you remember what happened? They came out of slavery; they came out of slavery. They were wandering in the wilderness, and did they begin thanking God for delivering them? “Oh Lord, thank You! You brought me out of captivity, and now I am going on to great things.” No. What did they do? They complained in the wilderness. They were hungry—it is understandable; they were in the wilderness, and the wilderness is not easy, it is not the Garden of Eden—but they were hungry, and they complained and murmured, so God gave them miraculous food. Do you remember?

In the morning there was something white, like dew, like the little drops of water that are there in the morning, like dew. It could be gathered, and it was supernatural. You could eat it and live on it. Now, it did not have much flavor; it was like—speaking of American food, right? And they began to complain: “Oh, there is no garlic, there is no onion, there is no sofrito.” They mentioned these things—notice that—they mentioned garlic and onions.

They said, “Oh, I want meat! That is rabbit food; I want meat!” And the Word says that “everyone stood at the entrances of their homes crying” like three-year-old children: “Oh, I want meat!” And Moses, desperate, said, “What am I, your mother?” He said that! And he says, “Lord, who am I, their mother? If that is the case, kill me right now.” Moses said it—just imagine! Thank God He did not listen to him; He did not grant his request. He said, “Moses, you are throwing a tantrum. I forgive you, but not them—not them.”

Look at what God says in Numbers 11—Numbers 11; let me see if I can find it. In Numbers 11 God says, “Do you want meat?” Okay, “but you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat,’” and I am going to give it to you, “because you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We were certainly better off in Egypt.’ Therefore, the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.” You shall not eat it for one day, or two days, or five days, or twenty days, but for an entire month, until it comes out of your nostrils “and you loathe it, because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come out of Egypt?’”

Being ungrateful for what God has given you is to despise the giver of what you have, right? “I gave you the manna.” Have you ever cooked for people and had them complain about your food? Please forgive them, forgive them, but come on—do not complain! But please forgive them. My children—you know, children do not mince words: “Yuck! This is bad. I don’t want it; I don’t like it.” How does that make you feel, right? We teach our children, “If you do that, the person who cooked the food for you is going to feel bad.”

So now it comes straight from the heart: “Oh, this is awful!” But afterward my child says, “I love you, Daddy. I love you, Mommy.” That does not make up for the missing “thank you”; it does not fix it. They were complaining instead of saying, “God provides for us.” It is not always going to be seasoned with garlic and onion. Sometimes it is going to be manna; sometimes it is going to be whole-grain bread. It is not going to be as tasty as you want, but it is what God has given you in life. Why look somewhere else?

There is a saying in English: “The grass on the other side of the fence is always greener,” right? The other car is always better; the other life is always better than yours. This murmuring led them into sin. It is serious; it can lead you into adultery, right? David was not content with an excellent wife God had given him. He had to add several more—and back then God tolerated that, but not anymore, right? And after having everything, there he was, looking at the wife of one of his best friends, one of his warriors: “I want this one.” But you have everything, David—look! “I am not content; I want this one.”

This failure to be content with what you have lies behind covetousness, murder, and violence. The apostle James says, “Why are there quarrels among you? Do they not arise from the lusts, desires, and passions you have?” They want and do not have, and so they engage in conflict because, “I want it.” It leads to rivalries and can lead to violence. This is serious; it is a lever.

I want you to think about Lucifer himself, endowed with all the beauty of an angel in heaven, but it was not enough. It was pride, but dissatisfaction with what God had given him sprang from that pride. And that is why ambition is healthy, but only when it comes from God, right? I hope we have a desire to move ahead, to improve our lives, to keep moving forward. That is fine if we do it by faith. But if we do it with a dissatisfaction that says, “I cannot be happy until I have such-and-such a thing,” what are you going to learn? When you get that thing, then what? There will be something else you need to have. “I cannot be happy.” “For the afflicted in heart, every day is miserable, even a day of success; but for the contented in heart, life is a continual feast.”

I want to begin wrapping up, although I have more to say, so do not leave. In the Book of Philippians, the apostle Paul teaches us how to live with the power of gratitude. We know his situation, right? The apostle Paul is imprisoned, not for doing anything wrong; he is in prison for serving God. I do not know whether you have ever thought, while going through suffering, “Why, God? I served You; I honored You. How can this be happening to me?” He could complain; he is imprisoned.

While Paul is imprisoned, there are brothers preaching in the streets, not to expand the Kingdom of God, but what are they doing? They are preaching in the streets so that Paul will be punished even more severely. What wickedness! Who could they be? What kind of people are they? They preach in the streets so that people will go and beat an apostle in prison, right? Evil people, right?

Then there were Roman soldiers holding Paul under threat of death. How did Paul react? How would you react if you were in such a situation? He says, “I want you to know, brothers, that the things which have happened to me have actually resulted in the advancement of the Gospel.” It has become clear to everyone: all those Roman soldiers who have me bound are being forced to listen to the Gospel because there are chains; they cannot run away from me.

I say, “Look, Roman soldier, do you know that Jesus loves you?” And he cannot run away because there is a chain on both sides. The apostle Paul says, “Being in prison is not my preferred choice. I do not want to be imprisoned, but in the midst of these circumstances, I thank God that His Kingdom is spreading,” and there is joy afterward. The brothers who were preaching to get him into trouble—what would you do? What awful people!

“Glory to God! The Gospel is being preached; I rejoice in this.” Then they say, “But they are going to kill you, Paul.” He says, “If they kill me, my spirit is separated from my body and is present with God. If they do not kill me, I continue serving God. Win-win. For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And they think, “But what can we do?” Satan is thinking, “What can we do to make this man miserable? We put him in prison, we have people doing evil things to him, we have him under threat of death, and he is joyful”—because the apostle Paul had learned a secret.

He tells us in Philippians 4—how many here know Philippians 4:13? Can you tell it to me? Amen, thank you for giving me a break there to drink some water—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Do you know what this is about? We use this verse when we have a challenge ahead of us that we have to face. If I am a student and have to take an exam, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”; a difficult job, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That is fine, but do you know the context of that?

The context is how to be grateful; that is the context. Look at verse 10, I believe, Philippians 4:10, which says: “I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned, but you lacked the opportunity. I do not say this because I am in need”—he is in prison, brothers and sisters—“I do not say this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever my situation may be. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to have abundance. In each and every circumstance I have been taught both how to be full and how to be hungry, both how to have abundance and how to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” He is not a victim.

Paul says: I am not going to be a victim, I am very sorry, but I am not going to be a victim. I have learned the secret of being content in Christ, of thanking God because He is with me; I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Brothers and sisters, we know that Thanksgiving is approaching, a national holiday—thank God many countries have comparable holidays. I do not know whether anyone here knows how the date of Thanksgiving came to be set on the last Thursday in November. Does anyone know? You do not have to say it, but does anyone know? Many of us are going to think that the Pilgrims and the Native Americans held their celebration perhaps on the last Thursday in November, but what is that all about? That would be before winter, not afterward, right? They held their celebration after a winter of suffering, not before winter. How did it come to be in November?

It was in the year 1863. Are you ready for a history lesson? President Abraham Lincoln, during the American Civil War over the freedom of the slaves and the division of the country and everything else—it was terrible, terrible; hundreds of thousands of young men were dying, and there was unimaginable slaughter. People were dying or losing arms and legs. It was hell for the country at that time, and back then, in that year, it was not clear that those whom we now call the good guys were going to win. It was not clear; the people in the South who wanted to keep the slaves were winning, they were winning, so it was a dark time in the country’s history.

And Abraham Lincoln, who was a man who did not start out as a Christian, but I believe he came to know Christ, began at that time to recognize the sovereignty of God, and he said: We are going to set the date now to give thanks to God. But Abraham, the war is not over! That is all right; we give thanks to God because He was faithful before, we believe that He will be faithful to us, and even though we are living through this hell, He is the same today, yesterday, and forever, and by faith we prophetically give Him thanks in everything.

The apostle Paul knew the secret, and he said: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I do not know what is happening in your life; every heart knows its own suffering. There is no pretense here that what you are suffering is not so bad, nor am I going to say that what you are suffering is the will of God, because perhaps it is the result of something bad that has happened or that someone has done. So how can we give thanks? Why give thanks if nothing good is happening around me?

I cannot thank God for the evil in the world; I cannot thank God for certain suffering. But in everything there is one thing for which I can indeed be thankful; there is one thing. The Bible has the answer, and it repeats it in 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 107:1, Psalm 118:1, and Psalm 136:1. The first verse of five Psalms says the following: “Praise the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” That is how we can thank God; that is something that does not change.

Perhaps you have messed up and you think: But I got myself into my problems. It does not matter; praise the Lord, for He is good to you, and His mercy endures forever. Perhaps you do not see the solution; He is still good, and His mercy toward you endures forever.