True Thanksgiving
(Habakkuk 3:16-19)

Thanksgiving is the fruit of mature Christians’ lives. The true thanksgiving enables people to stop complaining by seeing difficulties of present life and encourage people to see God who works for good, going beyond of current situation. The true thanksgiving makes people to wait for answers of God by believing in the plan of God despite of hardship. Today’s scripture reading is the praise of prophet Habakkuk because he found the plan and the grace of God to save people.

1. Thanksgiving in suffering
The true thanksgiving goes beyond surroundings. The prophet Habakkuk heard the voice of God saying that God would use Babylon to judge Judah. Habakkuk was so feared that he felt his heart pounding. However, he also heard the voice of God saying, “the righteous will live by his faith”. So he praised the Lord. According to verse 17-18, it says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD.” The reality was not good and it was rather frustrated because the base of life was totally collapsed. But the prophet gave prayer of thanksgiving believing that the righteous people will be saved by faith. True faith enables us to give thanks to God in the situation where the conditions seem not to be favorable for us to give thanks.

2. Thanksgiving because of God of salvation
The reason the prophet could give thanks was because of God of salvation. So he confessed, “I will be joyful in God my Savior.”(Hab. 3:18) To give the true thanksgiving, we should give thanks because of God of salvation regardless of our surroundings. With the thanksgiving to God, our Savior, we can live a life to please Lord in any situations.

3. Thanksgiving to God who exalts us
The reason the prophet could give thanks was because he believed that God would be his strength and enable him to go on the heights. According to verse 19, it says, “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” The true thanksgiving makes us happy even we lose all the physical conditions for us to give thanks. The reason is that God will be our strength, making our feet of a deer to go over the high mountains thereby standing on the place of winner.