Devotionals

Embattled Gratitude

by Anne Adams
11/25/24
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^… give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.   (1 Thess. 5:18 - NIV

For many months in the 1630s during what history called the Thirty Years War, the German community of Eilenberg struggled to survive as foreign marauding armies frequently swept through leaving death and destruction, In fact, during that time local pastor Martin Rinkart often conducted as many as 50 funerals a day besides housing refugees in his own home. Then when another army came through to take control of the town and demanded an exorbitant ransom, Rinkart negotiated for a reduced amount.

However, the enemy refused to reconsider, and the pastor returned to address his congregation with this news. “Come, my children,” he told them, “we find no mercy with man. Let us take refuge with God,” Then as the people dropped to their knees to pray they began singing Rinkart’s own hymn: “Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices,” they sang, “Who wondrous things has done in whom his world rejoices…”

It was truly a precarious position, but the afflicted townspeople expressed their trust in God as they sang their thanks for all he had done for them, and left the solution in his hands. Then, so the story goes, as their captors heard about the peoples’ response they agreed to the reduced ransom.  Surely it was a demonstration of embattled gratitude to a timeless God.

And he acts in the same way for us.

Of course while we may not face what the Eilenberg citizens did so long ago, our struggles certainly seem just as serious to us. So how should we respond? Shouldn’t it be like they did so long ago – meeting their challenge with thankfulness and appreciation for the Lord’s continued care and provision?

After all, when we do that we can step out as we demonstrate to a seeking and questioning world how our thanksgiving becomes thanks-living.