As the season of harvest draws to a close, thought turns naturally to God in thanksgiving for His wondrous works. The giving of thanks, however, should not be considered a seasonal event. To the Christian Scientist, praising God for His goodness is as unceasing as prayer. Paul, after exhorting the Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing" (I Thess. 5:17), adds, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
It is not arduous for one to express thanks to God for abundance of supply, for physical health, for victory over evil, for protection and guidance, when he has enjoyed these blessings. But it is not so easy for him to lift thought to the pinnacle of praise when lack, discomfort, confusion, or dismay is plaguing his human experience. However, praise is needed under every circumstance.
Christian Science shows one how to be genuinely thankful to God in times of joy or of stress. It is not consistent with the Bible or with this Science that one should be resigned to adversity or should tolerate error in his life. In order to gain freedom from discords, one must turn to God in prayer and praise. When in advance of need or in the face of erroneous circumstances one sincerely thanks God, divine Love, for His unfailing goodness, he has set a course in the direction of the demonstration of health, harmony, and salvation in his daily life.
Our sincere thanksgiving should be based upon the fact that God is unchangeable good, that all creation is in reality perfect and complete, that God has finished His work. Mary Baker Eddy points out in her chapter on Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 2), "God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is unchanging wisdom and Love." And she adds on the same page, "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it."
Before he called to Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, Christ Jesus prayed and said (John 11:41), "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." Jesus, always in close communion with God, was aware of God's gift of health, harmony, and eternal life to all of His children, even when such blessings were not humanly discernible.
It was natural for Jesus to thank God for changeless, eternal, spiritual being. His words of thanks were consistent with divine fact and constituted in effect a denial of the reality of disease and dissolution. His gratitude was a part of his efficacious, resurrective prayer. This prayer anticipated the restoration of Lazarus to his friends and family.
At the last supper, only a few hours before his crucifixion, we are told that Jesus "took the cup, and gave thanks" (Matt. 26:27). Such gratitude to God in the face of error's attempt to destroy him was a needed element of prayer in his triumph over the grave. Can we do less today than to drink of that same cup when errors face us and, as we pray, give thanks to God for His mercy and might?
Failure on our part to express thanks to God at all times and under all circumstances indicates a failure to honor God, and such failure is contrary to God's will for us. The giving of thanks is, as Paul declared, "the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Thankfulness is an included element of the homage which divine law insists that we express toward Deity. Without gratitude there is no salvation.
Whether our human pathway leads through valleys of discord or along the mountaintops of spiritual inspiration, gratitude for God's presence and power is indispensable. No material object or physical situation should be allowed to control our gratitude. Thankfulness should never depend upon materiality. Our constant thanks to God should center on our awareness of spiritual reality.
True thankfulness involves a recognition of the infinite, all-pervading Principle, God, governing all, upholding all, blessing all. It also involves a recognition of His infinite and perfect universe, including man, God's perfect expression. It likewise involves the awareness of harmony as the spiritual reality concerning everything in God's creation and the ever-availability of right ideas and divine qualities for use and demonstration in human affairs. It is, then, the spiritual and unalterable reality, for which we should be primarily and perpetually grateful. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 3): "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more."
In obedience to God's will, we praise His mighty name. As a result there is brought into our experience the divine influence of Truth, or the Christ presence, which serves to modify false beliefs that have adversely affected our body and environment. Thanksgiving to God helps to open the way to release from bondage. Through the Comforter, promised by Christ Jesus, Christian Science guides us to freedom, health, and harmony.
The will of God insists that we be thankful consistently and continually, that we never, in seeming adversity or prosperity, waver in our praise of Him who is the source of our being. Sincere thanksgiving for spiritual reality indicates a heart receptive of the tender, healing, saving message of Christ, Truth. Joyfully should we all obey the Psalmist's plea (Ps. 30:4), "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."
