When my little granddaughter was two, she had to have a blood transfusion. When the nurses came in to start her IV, little Lilly pleaded with them, “No thank you, No thank you” she would cry out. It was heartbreaking to hear her try so politely to refuse what was about to happen. A treatment that would help her recover from a dangerously low hemoglobin level, but she didn’t care about that. All she knew at that moment was something was going to hurt and she didn’t want it.
When we can control what we let into our lives, the use of “No thank you” is the polite way to refuse the choice in front of us. But what if we do not have that luxury? What about the things we can’t control? And is it ever appropriate to say “No thank you” to God?
I’ve said “No thank you” to Him before, not in words, but by my actions or lack of. The time He presented an opportunity for me to give till it hurt a little bit, and I refused. The time He said, He was waiting to speak to me through His Word and I just kept scrolling. The times He has asked me to do something, share something or say something for Him and I didn’t. Just like a two-year-old, it might hurt or be inconvenient to be obedient and I didn’t want it. Sometimes my own façade of politeness is my undoing.
This is the place where child-likeness and child-ishness have to part ways. A child is innocent, has no choice but to trust those who love her to make the right decisions that affect her, painful or not. I am not innocent. I get to choose to be disobedient and refuse the blessing. Just tell myself “be thankful” and move on.
Somehow I don’t believe that “giving thanks in all things” applies to my disobedience. There are the sins of commission and there are the sins of omission. Could what I am omitting, or not doing in obedience, be what is holding me back from experiencing the blessings of living an obedient, abundant life?

The more I learn about Jesus from His Word, the more I see how living given to others is important. He came to show us the loving heart of God. The way He shows this is how He gave.

Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”

Receiving all things from God’s hand with thanksgiving is the only way.  The good and the hard. Being thankful, “Yes” thankful, turns whatever we receive into a gift that can, in turn, be given to someone else. We are not here just to serve ourselves.
To know that we are ambassadors for Christ, (2 Corinthians 5:20), representing Him in our world, should make us ready ministers, not wanting fame or privilege but a life of service and humility. (Mark 10:43) Jesus is our example. He took time in the mornings to pray and ask His Father into His day. He went out of His way and to places that others considered beneath Him because He knew people needed Him. He comforted, He healed, He prayed until He sweat drops of blood asking His Father if there could be any other way than the Cross. He never said “No thank you” and neither should I.

Dear reader, I don’t know what you might be saying “No thank you” to today. What you have been prompted by His Spirit to do in order to follow Christ. God knows your heart. Looking back, I know every time I refused an opportunity to be obedient, I missed out on something for others that would have helped me to recover from my low empathy level. One of the most dangerous pathologies in Christianity.
Starting this Thanksgiving week, I am purposing in my heart to make it a “Thanksliving” week. Right off the bat my husband reminded me of something I neglected to do and I was tempted to throw in the towel. The Lord’s Spirit, not mine believe me, prompted me to do the thing and thank my man for the reminder. The enemy lost that one. This week I’m going to try to say give thanks more often and say a few more “yeses” to God and others. How about you?
Like the transfusion that hurts but is life-giving, obeying God can be painful, yet it yields blessings that we just cannot realize any other way. We would tell Lilly, “It only hurts for a little bit.” God tells us the same thing. In the frame of eternity, our current struggles are so microscopic.

Romans 8:18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Glory renewed.